Current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ’s rise to power has all the elements of a electrifying political drama : a successful coup orchestrated by dissenter within the police and administration bureaucratism ; an enthusiastic people contract to the street and a secluded religious drawing card enrage the political party in power from afar . Sexy stuff , indeed !
And somehow , this Turkish intrigue has ties to , of all things , the United Statescharter schoolsystem . That ’s correct . Surprised ? So were Stuff They Do n’t Want You To bed hosts Noel Brown and Ben Bowlin . That ’s why they invited the show ’s intern Sam Teegardin to sit in and excuse his experience take care one of these schools with ties to what ’s calledThe Gulen Movement .
So back to Erdogan . He came to superpower in Turkey in 2010 , aid along by a moderate U.S.-based Islamic churchman identify Fethullah Gulen hold up in expat in Pennsylvania . The movement , known in Turkey as " Hizmet " or serving , runs schools and businesses around the humankind , admit 120 charter schools in the United States that focalize on STEM ( skill , technology , engineering , and math ) program . It ’s a tolerant Islamic crusade that preach values like Education Department , interfaith dialogue , hard workplace and reserve as its gamey principles .
The Gulen Movement is considered by many a civic movement , not a political party , but Gulen and Erdogan ’s AKP political party were once natural allies : They both wanted Islamic values present in the administration . Gulen followershelped bring in down300 military force by implicating them in an attempted 2003coup , helping Erdogan catch even more power . But Gulen straight off begin to contend for command of the res publica .
An on-going purge suppressed Gulen - consort institution , newspapers , patronage and school , and all suspect Gulen following were forced out of their caper , effectively squashing all the influence the civil movement had gain . The care against Erdogan were drop , and he has more major power than ever .
But the Gulen Movement is not drained : It has an estimated 1 to 8 million follower worldwide . As mention earlier , the 120 U.S. charter schools function by the Gulen Movement direction on math , skill and perceptiveness for Turkish culture , and even provide trips to Turkey for the students . It offers spare education to the poor , promotes charity and good works , and in westerly countries like the United States , Germany and France teachersstress no faith in the schoolroom .
On its face , everything seems on the up - and - up . Butthere is trouble behind the façade : Even in location where instructor unemployment is in high spirits , Gulen school pay to bring teachers over from Turkey ; Gulen - affiliated contractors are awarded high - dollar Job ; and teachers are force to give up back part of their earnings to the movement . Theseshady financialsare a literal worry , since charter schools get millions of buck of taxpayer money to run .
The movement also hasbeen call off cult - like . Its vast connection of following loyal to the drive — even graduates of its schools — have been sleep together to infiltrate civil bureaucracies and operate businesses , furthering the Gulenists ' reach .
To find out what it ’s like to attend one of Gulen ’s U.S. charter school day from a student who was train in one , and to see whether Matt , Noel and Sam think the Gulen Movement is a craze or the " most supporting face of Islam today " you ’ll have tolisten to the eternal rest of the podcast .
