Islamist running 140 tax-funded charter schools in U.S.

Casts broad net of influence over lawmakers

Leo Hohmann About | Email | Archive

Muhammad Fethullah Gülen is a Turkish Islamist, writer and preacher with a secret plan for bringing Shariah law to America.   Arguably Turkey’s most influential spiritual leader of the past 50 years, Gülen left that country in the late 1990s and now directs his cult-like Islamic movement from a guarded compound in the Pocono Mountains of PennsyPart of his empire consists of a thriving network of more than 140 charter schools in 26 states that sell themselves to parents as a secular and more academically rigorous alternative to public schools. As the second largest chain of charter schools in the United States, Gülen schools rake in tens of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars every year.  But the schools, which have nondescript names like Horizon Science Academies in Illinois, Harmony School of Excellence in Washington, D.C., and Magnolia Science Academies in California, have long been the subject of investigations into alleged corruption scandals involving conflicts of interest, influence peddling and visa abuse.

USA Today reported recently that the Gülen faith movement secretly funded 200 overseas trips for congressional lawmakers and staff since 2008.....

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