On this holiest of holy days, all of Greece and its Diaspora honors the men, women and children who laid down their lives and fought against all odds for freedom. We celebrate the 71st anniversary of Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas’ rejection of the Fascist ultimatum, which demanded our nation to allow the Axis powers entry onto holy Greek Soil so that they could continue their evil campaign that had crushed all others into submission. In the spirit of this year’s commemoration, the Hellenic League of America releases the following article written by HLA activist, Alex Aliferis. In the same manner, in which we said no to occupation, fascism and enslavement of our nation, we must once against harness the Greek spirit to reject the infiltration of our beloved community by Islamic forces, which plot to, subdue us through the illusion of ‘peace’ and ‘interfaith dialogue’.
Contributed By Alex Aliferis
Unbeknownst to many within the Greek-American community Turkish Islamists has been able to infiltrate and manipulate the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church of America.
Just who are these Turkish Islamists? Fethullah Gulen, founder of the Gulen Movement, was born in 1941 in the village of Korucuk near Erzurum in Turkey. In 1959, with only a grade school education, he was able to obtain a preacher’s license in Edirne, Turkey and by 1966; held a religious post in Smyrna, Turkey.
On the surface, his message was one of peace, social justice, and theoretical naturalism, however, secretly he promoted an Islamic agenda in hopes of establishing Islamic rule in Turkey. A message, which would attract the current Prime Minister of Turkey, Erdogan, who is a devote follower of the Gulen Movement. In late 1990’s Gulen would be exiled from Turkey during a time of immense political instability, as Radical Islamic Prime Minister Erbakan was overthrown by the Turkish Military.
As a result, Gulen, moved to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania, in a remote area of 26 acres where he constructed the headquarters of his movement. Now firmly established in the United States, Gulen, continued to use such warm sounding buzz words as ‘social justice’, ‘peace’, ‘interfaith’ and ‘dialogue’ to manipulate the American public and Greek-American community into believing he was a man of peace. However, the June 6, 2011 New York Times article, Charter Schools Tied to Turkey Grow in Texas” (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/education/07charter.html) reveals the true dark side of Gulen and his Turkish Islamic agenda.
Currently, in the United States, there are 122 Gulen Charter Schools controlled by various Foundations throughout the country. In Arizona, these schools such as the Sonoran Science Academy operate under the Daisy Education Corporation. In the Chicago metropolitan area, these charter schools are found under the Niagara Foundation. These countless Gulen schools use various loopholes to bypass American immigration laws to import more Turkish nationals as teachers to the United States at a time when unemployment is running high for American teachers. In addition, they employ Turkish owned firms to supply these facilities with food, janitorial services and so on, employing not a single American.
American parents, concerned with what their children are learning in these schools have begun to raise awareness of brainwashing they were unaware of inside these Gulen Charter Schools, such as the fact that these various schools are teaching their students Turkish and Islamic culture. Gulen calls these students the ‘Golden Generation’, in reference to his movement’s goal of restoring the glory days of the Ottoman Empire and the Islamic Caliphate. These Gulen Schools organize Turkish Olympiads, which display American children demonstrating their Turkish skills: reading, singing, dancing in Turkish. There are currently 9 of these elaborate productions throughout the United States with the winners participating in the Gulen International Turkish Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey. The last such production was held June 15-30th and had over 700 ‘Golden Generation’ students representing over 100 countries.
Gulen, a master of deception, represents himself as a man of peace and interfaith dialogue, deceiving those who do not know him or his various groups. According to Stratfor Global Intelligence’s Special Report dated Aug 23, 2010, entitled ‘Islam Secularism and the Battle for Turkey’s future’, we are informed that, “In 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 business, religious leaders, politicians, journalists and average citizens together. Whatever its public relations moves, the Gulen movement is at best just one more player jockeying for power in Turkey”.
A prime example of how the Gulen movement operates in the United States is the Rumi Forum, which is based out of Washington D.C. and promotes a pro-Turkish agenda as it lobbies and promotes Turkish interests. Gulen has been the honorary President of this organization since 1999. Located in the same building as the American Enterprise Institute, the Rumi Forum organizes Congressional Ramadan Iftar Dinners in the name of ‘interfaith’, ‘peace’, and ‘dialogue’. At its second Ramadan Iftar Dinner in 2007, Archbishop Dimitrios was a guest speaker. (http://www.rumiforum.org/iftars-dinners/2nd-congressional-ramadan-iftar-dinner.html)
According to the Rumi Forum’s website, Archbishop Dimitrios expressed respect for Gulen. His speech focused on the state of human relations in our day. “Many misunderstandings have to do with lack of knowledge. You fight against something you do not know, if you know you might change your opinion and stop fighting and become friends”, His Eminence said. Praising the technology packed in small devices and showing the audience as an example his iPhone, Dimitrios said, “While technology goes that far, where is the iPhone of human relations? As religious leaders, we have to compete with technology and produce the device of human connectedness and love”. Dimitrios shared with the multi-faith crowd his vision of mutual respect as a basis for a successful interfaith dialogue.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Conference, made the keynote speech that year at the U.S. Congress, in which he stressed the need to energize interfaith dialogue. Professor Ihsanglu said that any terrorist or radical cannot represent Islam. Ihsanglu pointed out that Islam was not a religion of violence and expressed concern about the rising sentiment of islamophobia around the globe. “Extremists exist in all religious traditions. Sometimes extremists have spoken on behalf of Islam”, he stated. Noting that President Bush had recently announced his intention to nominate a special envoy to the OIC, Prof. Ihsanoglu said that this appointment would set up a direct linkage between America and the only official representative of the Muslim world, the OIC also stated that the OIC looked forward to cooperating with the Presidential envoy. He went on to say, “What we really need is to have a more comprehensive framework, which I call historic reconciliation between Islam and Christianity, Islam and the West”. Ihsanoglu called upon representatives of all faiths to have an agenda for their interfaith dialogue to transform misconceptions to mutual respect.
The problem with this, however, is that the Rumi Forum is a Turkish Lobby group that holds lectures promoting Turkey and an Islamic Agenda in the United States. The Rumi Forum Executive Director, Ali Yurtsever, sided with the Turkish Coalition of America in denying the Armenian Genocide, so much for ‘peace’ and ‘interfaith dialogue’. In 2007, Yurtsever attended a congressional hearing on the Armenian Genocide resolution to lobby against it with other Turkish Nationalists. Of the numerous lectures, the Rumi Forum has organized on Islam and Turkey several topics include: “The Role of African Americans in Establishing Islam in America with Imam Vernon Fared” (Dec 22, 2010), “U.S.-Turkey; Model-Partnership for 21st century with Joshua Walker”(Nov 3, 2010), “What does Turkey mean to the West now?”(July 1, 2010), “Turkish-Armenian Relations: What’s New? With anti-Greek/Cyprus Omer Taspinar of the Brookings Institute”(March 31, 2010), “New Approaches in Turkish Foreign Policy by Dr. Erhan”(Oct 6, 2009), “U.S. Support of Turkey’s Accession to the EU”(July 18, 2009), and “Ottoman Empire, An Oasis for Refugees” (July 23, 2009). These lectures are conducted by pro-Turkish Congressmen such as Virginia Democrat Congressman James Moran and New Jersey Democrat Congressman Rush Holt.
The Gulen movement has organized its Charter schools, foundations, and the Rumi Forum into the new Turkish-American Alliance based in Washington D.C.
(http://www.turkicamericanalliance.org).
Within this alliance, they include other associations such as Albanians, Bosnians, Azeris, Kyrgz American Association, and Balkan Turks. On June 27, 2011, the Turkish American Alliance held a lecture by the Turkish Ambassador to the United States, Namik Tan, called “Turkey in its region and beyond”.
In 2010, the Gulen’s Niagara Foundation in Chicago awarded Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos with a special award. (http://www.youtube.com/user/niagarafoundation?blend=3&ob=5).
According to the Bishop’s website, it says, “Named as “one of the twelve people to watch” by The Chicago Sun-Times (January 5, 2003), Bishop Demetrios has worked extensively to build bridges of understanding and improve relationships between Chicago’s Greek Orthodox Community with other local Orthodox bodies, as well as other Christian and non-Christian groups. His ecumenical and interfaith commitments are numerous, coalescing around areas of social justice and advocacy. To this end, in February of 2003, he co-founded a local initiative to improve relations between the Turkish and Greek communities in Chicago, culminating in his being named the recipient of the 2010 “Fethullah Gulen Award” from the Niagara Foundation, a Turkish/Muslim-American group in Chicago, inspired by Fethullah Gulen, a leading Turkish Muslim, advancing interfaith and intercultural dialogue.”
This Islamist Turkish Nationalist movement has succeeded in fooling Church officials through various awards to Greek Orthodox Priests in an attempt to neutralize the Greek-American community through the Greek Orthodox Church of America. It is up to those Greek Americans that have not fallen to the deceitful methods of the Gulen Movement to approach Archbishop Dimitrios and other Church officials to warn them about Gulen and his organizations. Organizations that seem to preach ‘peace’ yet lobby against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and support the illegal Turkish military occupation of Cyprus.
Videos:
Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos Bio:
http://chicago.goarch.org/bishop-demetrios/
Rumi Forum Iftar Dinner and Archbishop Dimitrios:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6SZ2XudfGI
Award to Bishop Demetrios of Mokissios by Niagara Found:
http://www.youtube.com/user/niagarafoundation?blend=3&ob=5
Gulen movement:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xj1igo_the-gulen-movement-a-new-islamic-world-order-cbn-com_news
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