Turkey and the Restoration of the Caliphate

[Pete]

Turkey and the Restoration of the Caliphate

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/...ration_of.html

"Turkey, the supposed bridge between East and West, was, until recently, showcased as a model democratic and secular exception in the Muslim world. Since the days of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk -- founder of the modern Turkish state in the 1920s -- the Turkish military and courts were assumed to be effectively moderating against the theocratic and ideological hold of Islam evident in Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. ......"

A good summery of the last 100 years and whats happening now.

[incarcerated]

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/201...turkeys_future

Islam, Secularism and the Battle for Turkey's Future

August 23, 2010 | 1217 GMT
A deep power struggle is under way in the Republic of Turkey. Most outside observers see this as the latest phase in the decades-long battle between Islamism and Kemalist secularism. Others paint it as traditional Anatolia’s struggle against modern Istanbul, egalitarianism versus economic elitism or democracy’s rise against authoritarianism. Ultimately, the struggle boils down to a fight over a single, universal concept: power.
The following special report recounts how an Islamist-oriented Anatolia has emerged to challenge the secular foundation of the modern Turkish state. While those looking at Turkey from the outside are often unaware of Turkey’s internal tumult, a labyrinthine internal power struggle influences virtually every move Turkey makes in its embassies, schools, courts, news agencies, military bases and boardrooms. Though the Turkish identity crisis will not be resolved by this power struggle, the battle lines drawn during the fight will define how the country operates for years to come….

The Turkish Islamist Movement

The AKP is by no means pursuing the Islamist vision alone. A powerful force known as the Gulen movement has quietly and effectively penetrated the armor of the Kemalist state over four decades. The charismatic imam Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, leads the transnational organization, along with a small group of what the Gulenists term “wise men.” Inside Turkey, the Gulen movement follows a determined agenda that aims to replace the Kemalist elite and transform Turkey into a more religiously conservative society. Outside Turkey, Gulen presents itself as a multifaith global organization working to bring businesses, religious leaders, politicians, journalists and average citizens together. Whatever its public relations moves, the Gulen movement is at base just one more player jockeying for power in Turkey.
The Kemalists have long viewed the Gulen movement as a critical threat to the secular nature of the Turkish republic. When Fethullah Gulen left Turkey for the United States in 1998, the court documents that had been issued against him included sermons in which he called on his followers to “move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers.” He also said that “the time is not yet right. You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it.”
More than a decade later, the Gulen movement has a presence in virtually all Turkey’s power centers. In its earlier years, the movement moved much more discreetly, focusing on moving into the “arteries of the system” without drawing attention to itself. Since 2007, however, when the AKP was elected with 47 percent of the popular vote, conditions have ripened such that the Gulen movement can be much more open about its activities in the country. Gulenists now transmit a strong sense of confidence and achievement in their discussions with outsiders, as the movement knows this is its moment and that decades of quiet work aimed at transforming Turkish society are paying off….

Education: Sowing Seeds in the Schools

Turkey’s power struggle begins in the classroom. The most intense period of ideological cultivation for many Turks takes place between grades eight through 12, and the Gulen movement has spent the past three decades working aggressively in the education sector to mold young minds in Turkish schools at home and abroad. The goal is to create a generation of well-educated Turks who ascribe to the Gulen tradition and have the technical skills (and under the AKP, the political connections) to assume high positions in strategic sectors of the economy, government and armed forces.
The AKP-run government distributes free textbooks published by a firm close to the Gulen movement in primary and high schools. Gulen-funded schools are increasing in number, along with thousands of public Imam Hatip schools and state-run Quran schools for high school education.

Since the AKP mostly appeals to Turkey’s religious conservative and lower-income families, many of the party’s potential political supporters attend public technical schools for working-class laborers as well as religiously oriented Imam Hatip schools, where girls are permitted to don the Islamic headscarf, for their high school education instead of regular high schools. Under Turkey’s current educational system, graduates from technical schools are only qualified to attend two-year colleges and graduates from Imam Hatip schools are only qualified to attend theological schools, even though many graduates from Imam Hatip schools want to pursue careers in law, medicine, engineering and other professions. Meanwhile, graduates from regular public and private high schools — where the headscarf is banned by law — are qualified to attend four-year accredited universities in seeking a higher education. Both the technical and Imam Hatip schools fall under the labor school category, and since graduates from labor schools are not permitted to attend four-year universities, much of the AKP’s younger political base is prevented from rising in economic stature when seeking a higher degree.
In an effort to change this system, the AKP government has been engaged in an intense struggle with the secularist-dominated State Council to revise the strict grade point average calculations such that graduates from all labor schools (including Imam Hatips) can enter all four-year universities (not only theological ones), from which they can rise to more prominent positions and remain loyal to the AKP and the Gulenists. The AKP has yet to succeed, but it has not given up on this crucial point on its education agenda.
The Gulen movement claims the majority of Turkish students are enrolled in its private and public schools. The Gulenist schools are not madrassas; in fact, they focus heavily on the sciences and math. That said, religious classes and customs can make their way into the curriculum and daily activities, especially in countries with existing Islamic links.
The Gulenist educational institutions are easily identified because they typically have newer facilities and better equipment than most schools, and they offer the most intensive preparation courses for university entrance exams. These exams will make or break a Turkish student’s career, and are something most Turkish youths remember as the most dreaded and stressful experience of their academic lives. Many Turkish parents are willing to pay a great deal of money to ensure that their children receive the preparation they need to pass their exams and get into a good university. Consequently, the Gulen movement has strategically developed private courses and Isik Evleri, or Lighthouses, which are tuition centers that arguably offer the best preparation for university exams for students and the best recruiting grounds for the Gulenists. For those exceptionally bright students that come from low-income families, private courses are offered for free.
Students who have taken these courses describe how the “elder brothers” who run these Lighthouses maintain an intense curriculum that keeps the students at school late and on the weekends instead of out socializing and engaging in behavior frowned upon by religious conservatives. Students may start going to Lighthouses two to three times a week, but can find themselves attending nearly every day of the week by the time they reach the end of the course. Based on their participation, attendance and performance in the courses, the Gulenist brothers are able to pick out the brightest and most loyal students as potential recruits. To test their loyalty, a student may be called late in the evening or early on a weekend morning and asked by his or her mentor to attend a function or perform community service. This is intended to help the Gulenists evaluate whether the student will respond to orders from his or her Gulenist mentors.

[incarcerated]

Cont.


The Gulen movement and AKP have carried their presence to the university level as well. The pivot of the university battle is an institution called the Higher Education Council (YOK). YOK was created by the 1982 Turkish Constitution to keep a lid on political dissent in the universities, since prior to the 1980 military coup, universities were the driving forces behind the political violence between right- and left-wing activists that marred the 1970s in Turkey. Up until 2007, YOK was a bastion for hardcore secularists in Turkey to ensure their dominance over the universities and prevent the entrenchment of Islamists in Turkey’s higher education institutions.
When the last secular president of YOK retired in 2007, the AKP had its chance to appoint one of its own, professor Yusuf Ziya Ozcan, an AKP loyalist and sympathizer of the Gulen movement. Since then, YOK has been at the forefront of the highly polarizing headscarf issue in Turkey and has used its powers to appoint religious conservatives to university presidencies. Under the AKP’s watch, and particularly since 2007, 37 public universities and 22 new private universities have been built, many of them in Anatolian cities such as Konya, Kayseri and Gaziantep where the Anatolian business class is concentrated or in less-populated and impoverished cities where young Turks have traditionally lacked access to higher education. The private universities are mostly funded by Gulenist businessmen.
Strategic Placement
But the Gulen movement and AKP do not only want loyal students to attend Gulen-run universities. Indeed, a core part of their strategy is to ensure the placement of their students in a variety of secular institutions where they can gradually grow in number and position themselves to influence strategic centers of Turkish society. For example, the university results of a Gulenist student may qualify him to attend the most elite university in Istanbul, but the movement will arrange for the student to attend a military academy instead, where the Gulenists are trying to increase their presence. While at the military academy, the student will quietly remain in touch with his Gulenist mentor, but will be careful not to reveal any religious tendencies that would flag him and deny him promotion. Once placed in a strategic institution, whether in the military, police, judiciary or major media outlet, the graduate continues to receive guidance from a Gulenist mentor, allowing the movement to quietly and directly influence various organs of society. The Gulen movement is also known to influence its young followers to attend universities in cities away from their families where the movement can provide them with free housing. This separation allows the Gulen to step in as a family replacement and strengthen its bond with the student while he or she is away from home.
Gulenist Schools’ Expanding Global Influence
Over the past few decades the Gulen movement has spread to virtually every corner of the globe through its expansive education network. The Gulenist international footprint comprises 1,000 private schools (according to Gulen estimates) spanning 115 countries, including 35 African countries. These Gulenist schools can be found in small towns everywhere from Ethiopia, Bosnia, Cambodia, India, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Cote d’Ivoire, Azerbaijan — and even the United States, where according to some estimates, the movement runs more than 90 charter public schools in at least 20 states.
Like their counterparts in Turkey, the facilities and quality of instruction at these schools are excellent, making them attractive places for elite families of various ethnicities to send their children to receive an education. Gulenist businessmen provide the majority of these schools’ funding. Such donors have given a portion of their incomes to schools in an assigned region in exchange for help finding business deals. The teachers of the schools are typically devout Gulenist followers willing to live far away from home in foreign lands for what they see as the greater mission of the Gulenist cause.
The curriculum at these schools includes math, science, and Turkish- and English-language instruction, but there is a deeper agenda involved than pedagogy. Graduates of these schools can usually speak Turkish fluently, have been exposed to Turkish culture and history, and are prepared for careers in high places. In regions like Africa and Central Asia in particular, where quality education is difficult to come by, the children of the political elites who attend these schools usually have developed a deep affinity for Turkish culture. As a result, the Gulenists are able to raise a generation of diplomats, security professionals, economists and engineers who are more likely to take Turkish national interests into account when they reach positions of influence.
The Gulenists have made a conscious attempt to avoid the perception that they are proselytizing to students through these schools, however. Lessons in Islam tend to be more prevalent in Gulenist schools where the religion already has a foothold. For example, Islam has a deep history in the Caucasus and Central Asia, though the religion was severely undermined by decades of Communist rule. Many Azerbaijanis, Kazakhs, Uzbeks and other descendants of the Soviet Union do not identify with Islam; the Gulenist schools in these regions aim to revive moderate Islam in the former Soviet territories. This is not to say that the Gulenists are radicalizing these countries, however. In fact, the Gulenists emphasize that the Turkish version of Islam that they teach is moderate in its approach and distinct from the strict Islamic practices of Saudi Arabia and Iran.
As such, the Gulenists are not welcome everywhere they would like to set up. Iran and Saudi Arabia, neither of which wants a foreign strand of Islam influencing its people, have both shut the Gulenist schools out. In the Netherlands, where concerns over the growth of Islam run particularly high, the government has tried to force out Gulenist institutions. For its part, Russia — a natural competitor to Turkey — is extremely wary of this channel of influence, and has reportedly shut down at least 16 Gulenist schools so far. Russia is also heavily reasserting its influence in the former Soviet Union; to this end; it wishes to block the Gulenist movement from expanding in places like Central Asia and the Caucasus. Uzbekistan, with a government paranoid about external influences — especially those tinged with Islam, which they fear will inflame the various militant Islamist groups in the region — banned a number of Gulenist schools in 2000. The Gulenists have had greater success in setting up private high schools and universities in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. Meanwhile, Azerbaijani officials regularly complain in private about the Gulenist “encroachment” in their country, claiming they do not need Turks to instruct them on how be “good Muslims.” Even Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government reportedly shut down four Gulenist institutions in December 2009.
Such resistance is likely to increase as the movement’s profile rises and as countries grow nervous over Turkey’s expanding influence. In places like Africa, however, where countries are desperate for development, Muslims are in abundance, chaotic conditions prevail and foreign competition lacks the intensity it has in strategic battlegrounds like Central Asia, the Gulen movement has far more room to expand its educational, business and political ties….