Adonis Diaries

A Turkish cultural movement: Fathallah Gulan?

There is this educational movement initiated by a former Turkish official preacher or Moslem cleric, called Fathallah Gulan, who currently resides in Pennsylvania since 1999, for supposedly health reason.

The movement has established over 1,000 schools in over 100 States.  The schools are gender separated and offering a mixed education of Western scientific reasoning, latest technology know how, and Islamic value system.  The schools teach in local language, English, and Turkish.

Turkey and the Capital Istanbul are to be the Grail for must visit to graduates as was Paris, as is New York, as will be Shanghai.

The primary target States were the Central Asia States under the former Soviet Union such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan…

The Turkish graduate teachers were “voluntarily” sent to remote towns in Central Asia States since 1992 to open schools, teach, and set up businesses.  The ideological undertone was that the roots of the Turkish race are from this regions and the citizens in these States have to regain pride and dignity in their Turkish origins.

Initially, poor students were encouraged to attend these schools for free education and board until this schooling system prospered and rich people patronized it.

Currently, fees are around $5,000 in Kazakhstan because 30,000 applied for 1,400 vacant places.  Schools in a particular State are totally independent from even the nearby State and teachers are not to visit schools in other States.  Management and administration of Schools in one State have a branch office in Istanbul.

Teachers wear black suits and black ties and they do not grow beard.  Higher level students play religious advisors or chaperon in Islamic value systems and ethics.

Women are not permitted to accede to the higher administrative and decision spheres in this multi billion enterprise.

The initial teachers were principally educated in Catholic schools and propagated the same teaching programs. For example, these schools teaches both the creationist and evolutionary theory of mankind.  Graduates from these schools contribute heavily and generously to this organization once they establish their own businesses.

This organization is not formally registered as a political party or as an official movement: it has no formal constitution or program; its finances are not transparent.  Its members are not asked to formally register in the organization.

It is a “secret” organization except for its educational purposes.  A former Interior Turkish minister estimates that 70% of the police force are members in that organization.

This “organization” claims not to have any theocratic ideology.  Anyway, Islam is one of the rare religions where knowledge and sciences were encouraged to acquire, practice, and disseminate everywhere, even when its political systems where fundamentally theocratic.

Thus, teaching Western sciences and reasoning are no foundation to believing that in due time this organization will NOT establish a theocratic system in Turkey.

Note 1:  Current events are demonstrating that this movement was the precursor or the catalyst of the Turkish Moslem Brotherhood in power under Erdogan PM.

Note 2: This December 2013,  Erdogan sacked the ministers of the Interior, Finance and Justice on ground of frauds committed by their sons. Erdogan has decided that this powerful cultist movement is getting out of hand and its tentacles are reaching way deep in the social and political fabrics of Turkey.