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Health & Fitness

Mayor Road Trip...

Mayor Road Trip...

OK... so yet again Mayor Bryan K. Barnett is taking another road trip… this time to Turkey for a week for the good of Rochester Hills. Many in our community would argue this is a good thing; spreading the word for Rochester Hills. In a global economy it is the right thing to do, maybe some of this 'good' will bring back Turkish businesses to Rochester Hills and we can give them tax abatements, generate new jobs for American workers. All sounds great... elected officials as of late love to talk about new American jobs.

This latest Road Trip gets even better, according to the Patch we are only (the taxpayer) paying for the airfare... I'm sure their source is true, they don't print news stories they just regurgitate press releases. Also because this is a 'good will trip for the City' the funding source I'm pretty sure will come from a cable franchise fee revenue source, which does have strict restrictions... so even the word taxpayer is wrong... this money comes those extra fees that show up on your cable bill. So we don't have money for new Cops or fix roads but we do have money to fly our Mayor around the world first class many times over because we the residents watch TV… Can’t use franchise fee revenue to fix roads.

Now what is the Niagara Foundation? ... Sounds like a lobbying group... their footing the rest of bill... things like: the hotel bill, ground transportation bill, the bar tab and food, gifts to bring home to America. Such a deal they pay, and we the residents get zero transparency. Niagara Foundation could post all of the Mayors expenses… someone good at newspaper reporting should ask them and post their answer.

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The Niagara Foundation is a great cause, according to www.linkedin.com "MISSION: Niagara Foundation serves societal peace, love, and friendship wisely and compassionately in support of human dignity and the common good by striving to bring forth the common values of humanity; values such as understanding, tolerance, respect, and compassion. VISION: In a world where even the farthest point is within an arm’s reach, it is impossible to live anywhere without experiencing diversity. In order for everyone to live peacefully, it is important for individuals to rise above differences that drive us apart or against each other. Niagara Foundation envisions a community in which people from all walks of life interact with each other and cooperate to serve their communities, thereby strengthening civil society and promoting the development of human values." Wow this all sounds GREAT!!! But where is the word 'businesses' or 'job'...?

Don't know residents... I think we need to dig more... "Fethullah Gulen Time 100, 2013... We are thrilled to share the exciting news that Niagara Foundation’s honorary president, M. Fethullah Gulen, was named as one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2013. We feel this recognition is well suited for Mr. Fethullah Gulen, who has dedicated his life to promoting tolerance and peaceful coexistence between people of all faiths and cultures. His reinterpretation of various facets of the Islamic tradition speaks to his contemporary Muslim audience, and his message of intercultural dialogue, community service and education inspires millions of people in his native Turkey and around the world." source: Niagara Foundation website

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OK... still no 'businesses' or 'job' but now at least we know who Niagara Foundation honorary president is, M. Fethullah Gulen and were they both stand. GREAT!!!... But now who is M. Fethullah Gulen... a controversial Muslim preacher has now extended his reach into schools in the United States, where he controls and operates more than 100 charter schools within a calculatively set up maze of dubious non-governmental organizations. Fethullah Gulen, whose organizations’ net worth is estimated to be somewhere between $22 billion and $50 billion, owns and operates over three hundred Madrasas around the world, including Pakistan, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. While Gulen’s suspicious and secretive Madrasas have been shut down and or restrained in countries such as Russia, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, based on these governments’ justified suspicions that his schools had more than just education on their agendas, his rapidly and secretively expanding charter school empire here in the US has gone quite unnoticed and unacknowledged.

In less than a decade Gulen’s Islamic network in the US has established over 100 publicly funded charter schools in 25 states. What makes this eyebrow raising phenomenon a very disturbing case is the fact that despite official documents and publicly available data Fethullah Gulen is going out of his way to deny his connections to these schools. The question is why? Here is an excerpt from a USA Today article in August 2010: "The schools educate as many as 35,000 students — taken together they’d make up the largest charter school network in the USA — and have imported thousands of Turkish educators over the past decade. But the success of the schools at times has been clouded by nagging questions about what ties the schools may have to a reclusive Muslim leader in his late 60s living in exile in rural Pennsylvania." or this one "In 1999 Gulen defected to the US shortly before his scandalous speech, where he is heard calling on his supporters to “work patiently and to creep silently into the institutions in order to seize power in the state”, became public. Turkish prosecutors demanded a ten-year sentence for Gülen for having “founded an organization that sought to destroy the secular apparatus of state and establish a theocratic state”. Mr. Gulen has not left the United States since."

Okay, let’s recap this absurdity: Here is a Turkish Muslim preacher who fled Turkey after his alleged intentions to replace the secular government with one based on Sharia laws were exposed. He comes to the US, settles here, and starts taking advantage of our vastly and overly used nonprofit laws to build his network of non-governmental organizations and won't publicly admit controls and operates more than a 100 charter schools.

OK... don't know about you folks but if I keep digging I'm going to get a royal headache. Still no word 'businesses' or 'job'...? Don't know if this crowd is a good one for the City to hang its reputation with, and last I read the United States Constitution we weren't supposed to mix Church and State together.

I think our Mayor needs to come home... we have plenty of problems here to solve ... one I can think of immediately is a new Sunoco Gas Pipeline through our community... residents are asking for community support from their local government to address their concerns.

Scot Beaton
655 Bolinger St. Rochester Hills 48307
Political Experience former Rochester Hills City Council member 1988 to 1997
President, Rochester Hills City Council (2 Years)

more info at: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2010/10/20/did-you-know-the-king-of-madrasas-now-operates-over-100-charter-schools-in-the-us/

more info at: City Journal Autumn 2012. A quarterly magazine of urban affairs, published by the Manhattan Institute.

by Claire Berlinski Who Is Fethullah Gülen?

Controversial Muslim preacher, feared Turkish intriguer—and “inspirer” of the largest charter school network in America

http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_4_fethullah-gulen.html

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