• • Kenilworth charter school, subject of apparent FBI inquiry, has ties to Turkish education movement
• • Exposed: Names and Identities of Muslim Brotherhood Operatives in U.S
• • Georgetown University's One-Way Street of Christian-Muslim Understanding

FBI and Kenilworth Science and Technology Charter School officials aren't saying why the FBI converged on the Baton Rouge school's campus Wednesday evening, carting off boxes.

But the school has ties to a controversial education movement inspired by a Turkish Muslim scholar, Fethullah Gulen. And other schools connected with that movement have reportedly been investigated by the FBI.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2011 that the FBI was investigating whether employees of charter schools affiliated with the Gulen movement were kicking back part of their salaries, funded by taxpayers, to the Turkish Muslim movement of "Hizmet." The Inquirer reported the investigation was "nationwide," but coordinated by prosecutors in Pennsylvania, where Gulen lives.

Kenilworth's ties to the Gulen movement aren't direct or publicly advertised. Kenilworth Superintendent Tevfik Eski has previously denied to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune any connection between Gulen and the school.

But in 2011, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune reported that Pelican Educational Foundation, the nonprofit group that runs Kenilworth, does have various connections to the movement.

For example, Karen Fontenot, vice president of Pelican's board, spoke in 2010 at a conference on the Gulen movement and said, "I'm on the advisory board of the schools --the Gulen schools in Louisiana."

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Titled (in translation), "With Names, Identities, and Roadmap...  El Watan Exposes Brotherhood Cells in America," it's written by investigative journalist Ahmed al-Tahiri, who begins the report by saying:

In the context of El Watan's ongoing investigation concerning the Brotherhood's cells and lobby inside America that support the regime of the ousted [Morsi], and which intensified their activities to attack and defame the June 30 Revolution, informed sources have disclosed to El Watan newspaper the names and cell entities of the Brotherhood and their roadmap of activities all throughout the United States of America.

The sources said that these organizations, which are spread throughout the States, agitated for and were supportive of the decisions taken by Muhammad Morsi's project to "Brotherhoodize" and consolidate power [in Egypt] and gave a favorable opinion to the general American public that Morsi's decisions were welcomed by the public [in Egypt]. Following the June 30 Revolution, these groups  launched a malicious war in order to incite the American administration to take hostile decisions against Egypt, with the aim of bringing back the Brotherhood to the power.

El Watan then goes on to name names, saying that the following activists and entities are Brotherhood operatives working within the United States (reproduced verbatim):

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Presented by Georgetown's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) on the occasion of its 20^th anniversary, the conference has already produced considerable controversy.  The keynote address by popular British religion writer Karen Armstrong, for example, unconvincingly argued that Al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks resulted from Muslim grievances inflicted by the West in general and the British Empire in particular.  Outside of the conference's estimated 100 attendees at Georgetown's Copley Hall, Armstrong's arguments have met with universal revulsion, if comments upon my previously published analysis are any indication (see here and here, for example).

A panel moderated by Islam scholar Natana J. DeLong-Bas, meanwhile, preceded Armstrong.  As a moderator, DeLong-Bas did not have much too say, which was probably just as well, as research has revealed her to the unsuspecting at the conference and elsewhere as an Islamism apologist and 9/11 truther.  Among other things, she has doubted the role of Osama bin Laden in 9/11 and has praised the "democracy" efforts of Hamas.

Armstrong and DeLong-Bas were perhaps predictable given the tone set at the conference's morning introduction by ACMCU's director, the frequent Islamism apologist and internationally renowned Islam scholar John Esposito.  Along with the "Arab Spring" becoming "potentially the Arab Winter" and "Sunni-Shia sectarianism," Armstrong's fellow United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) High Level Group member Esposito identified the "rise of Islamophobia" as a global issue facing Islam.  McLaren likewise during the conference's final panel spoke of Islam substituting for Communism after the Cold War's end had for many Americans "take[n] away their enemy" and identity "crutch."

Participants on "The Arab Uprisings, Islamic Movements & the Future of Democracy" panel, meanwhile, seemed mystified by any threat perception within Islam.  Emad Shahin, for example, judged concerns about Islam's compatibility with democracy a "useless question."  According to Shahin, anyone, not just the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), could have "made mistakes" ruling Egypt following the downfall of its dictator Hosni Mubarak.  Opponents of deposed Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi from the MB "should have respected the process" and the Arab Spring's "people power."

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The Rambler, the student publication for the university, published an article on November 19th about the prayer room, explaining its purpose, the story behind its inception and its uses.

"The reasons for this (prayer room) are twofold," Chaplain Dr. Robert K. Flowers told the publication. "One, to show hospitality to our foreign students and, two, our campus needs to be open and tolerant of other faith traditions whether it is Islam, Hindu, Jewish, or otherwise."

The prayer room was established last year at the request of Mohamed Khalid Alshafei, the president of the Saudi students club, who met with university President Frederick Slabach about the matter. The article noted that Saudi-or Muslim-students pray about five times a day and have certain rituals surrounding their observances.

"We have to be cleaned before we pray," Alshafei stated. "We believe that when we pray, we will be between the hands of God."

Therefore, the prayer room is held in the Morton Fitness Center and faces Mecca in compliance with Islamic requirements.

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Shortly after noon Friday, the room fell into an intent, reverent silence, interrupted only by the padding of shoeless feet on carpet and the occasional creaking of a door as latecomers trickled in.

More than 150 Muslim University of Minnesota students and employees filled the conference room for weekly community prayer on the third floor of Coffman Union at 12:30 p.m.

Throughout the week, students can be found spread across campus, tucked in hallway corners or kneeling in open courtyards for their daily prayers.

On Fridays, that prayer is meant to be shared. But many say the Coffman space reserved by the Muslim Student Association isn't enough to accommodate the University's Muslim population.

When hundreds show up for Friday prayer, they sometimes spill out into the hallway, said biology freshman Zoha Khatoon.

With a prayer ritual that involves repeated bowing and kneeling, Khatoon said they have to stagger their movements to deal with limited space. Most of the time, she said, it's simply uncomfortable.

"It gets really hot," Khatoon said. "And when you bend over, there's not enough room to put your whole body down."

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