Islam-inspired schools growing in Ohio

Three of the Horizon academies are located in Dayton.

Ty Greenlees/Staff photographer Hallway of the Horizon Science Academy High School during class change.

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By Tom Beyerlein and Margo Rutledge Kissell, Staff Writers Updated 10:32 PM Saturday, March 19, 2011

DAYTON — A fast-growing educational movement inspired by a reclusive Islamic imam has opened charter schools throughout the country, including three Horizon Science Academies in Dayton.

The Chicago-based Concept Schools runs 19 Ohio charter schools, becoming one of the state’s largest operators of publicly funded charters. It was founded by Turkish educators inspired by a religious leader, scholar and poet Fethullah Gülen, who preaches a philosophy of nonviolence, interfaith dialogue and personal success through education in math and the sciences. The schools’ operators say they don’t push a religious agenda.

The Gülen movement has drawn praise and criticism from both ends of the political spectrum. Former President Clinton and former President Reagan’s secretary of state, James Baker, are among its supporters, lauding the movement’s success in educating kids in tough urban environments. But conservative bloggers accuse Gülen followers of trying to brainwash kids in the ways of radical Islam, and teachers union officials say the schools misuse the H-1B visa program to import Turkish teachers, bypassing qualified Americans.

“We have folks who are ... fully capable, yet Ohio tax dollars are paying salaries of people coming in on visas,” Ohio Federation of Teachers President Sue Taylor said. “There just is something terribly amiss with that picture.”

Concept Vice President Salim Ucan said a demanding curriculum, high expectations, strict discipline and longer classroom hours are parts of a recipe that has allowed some inner-city Concept schools to achieve impressive test scores and college placement rates.

One of its Cleveland schools is the only Ohio charter to earn a rating of excellent with distinction, but two of its three Dayton schools are on academic watch. The Ohio schools received more than $27 million in state funding in fiscal 2010, according to the state department of education.

Launched in 1999, Concept was the first group of educators to start a Gülen-inspired U.S. charter school, in Cleveland. Gülen’s followers generally keep a low public profile and there’s no official count of Gülen-inspired schools, but experts say there now are more than 100 schools in 20 states, typically operated by unrelated, nonprofit organizations. By one count, Ohio is second only to Texas in the number of Gülen schools.

Ucan said 90 percent of Concept’s teachers are American in the current school year. Concept’s website says that, at one time, 25 percent of its teachers were foreign but Ucan said “as the schools grew, we slowed down on hiring international teachers.”

As publicly funded schools, he noted, they are forbidden to push religion. A U.S. Department of Education official said no Gülen school in the nation has been found to violate that rule.

“You’re always going to fear what you don’t know,” said Mimi Cox, who sends her three children to Horizon academies in Dayton. “Nobody is pushing their religion on anybody.”

Ucan said it shouldn’t matter whether the schools are Gülen-inspired “as long as no one is imposing any ideas upon anyone. That’s what makes America America.”

Muslim cleric condemns terrorism

Fethullah Gülen has been described as Turkey’s most influential thinker, espousing a moderate Muslim ideology that condemns terrorism and embraces understanding between faiths.

Born in 1941, Gülen adheres to the mystical Muslim path of Sufiism, and is described by scholars as the modern link to Turkey’s Ottoman tradition. His influences include the 13th century Persian poet Rumi, whose work spawned the whirling dervishes.

Gülen is a strong believer in math, science and technology education, teaching Turkish youth they “could be modern and still be good Muslims,” said University of Houston sociology Professor Helen Rose Ebaugh, author of a 2009 book about Gülen. “His message really caught on quickly. There are schools in 121 countries.”

The university’s Gülen Institute credits the schools, which began in 1974, with making university education available to those outside Turkey’s ruling class. By 1990, movement members began founding schools and universities outside Turkey itself. Turkish Gülen followers also own a bank, a wire service, Turkey’s largest newspaper, a television network, a radio station and publishing companies.

Gülen came to the U.S. for medical treatment in 1999 and has remained here, living a reportedly spartan life at a remote Pennsylvania retreat. Turkish officials charged him in absentia with trying to establish an Islamic state in the secular nation, charges that were dropped in 2008.

U.S. Homeland Security sought to block permanent-resident status for Gülen in 2007, the Wall Street Journal reported, but he won on appeal.

He is said to be in poor health and rarely grants interviews. In his first interview with a U.S. newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, in mid-2010, Gülen said, “I do not consider myself someone who has followers.” But various estimates have placed his following at between 3 million and 8 million.

In written responses to questions from USA Today, Gülen said he doesn’t know any of the leaders of the schools inspired by his teachings and has no involvement with the schools. “If they are successful in contributing to human well-being, love, social peace and harmony, I would applaud that,” he said.

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