Conservative Conference Warns Of Hidden Islamic Danger In ‘Race To The Top’ Funding
A new memo that has been making the rounds in conservative circles is a dire warning about an onslaught of Islamic “Gulen schools,” a growing international network of charter schools begun in Turkey that offer “a blend of religious faith and largely Western curriculum.”
At the Educational Policy Conference, a large gathering of social conservatives in St. Louis in January, prominent neoconservative and anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney, and former Colorado State Board of Education member Peggy Littleton sounded the alarm on the “creeping threat” of Gulen schools hidden in President Obama’s landmark education initiative, the Race to the Top program, which encourages innovation in education, including charter schools. Littleton, who currently serves as an El Paso County Commissioner, told conference-goers that “the only reason [Obama is] pushing more charter schools” through Race to the Top is “because of these Gulen schools.”
ThinkProgress caught up with Littleton after her speech. She told us that the Obama administration “intentionally had already thought through how they could have a proliferation and a sneaking creep, if you will, of Gulen schools by embedding their acceptance and even promotion of charter schools under this new wonderful thing of Race to the Top.” She warned that these schools were teaching our children to “hate Americans.” Watch it:
Not to be outdone, Gaffney told the audience that, along with the federal government and CPAC, Gulen schools were “another example of this Muslim Brotherhood kind of operation, stealth jihad.” Completing Fox News host Glenn Beck’s “worldwide Muslim caliphate theory,” Gaffney also declared that Fethullah Gulen, the namesake of Gulen schools, “is a fellow who I think envisions himself being the next Caliph.” He finished by calling Gulen schools “an insidious, seditious program” and called on conference-goers to spread the word to friends and elected officials. Watch it:
Full transcript, after the jump
First video:
LITTLETON: If you’ve done any research on Gulen schools, you need to get on the Internet and do some. Because I believe – and this is just my own personal opinion without any factual data to back it up – one of the only reasons the Obama administration is willing to stand in the face of teacher’s unions, who supported his campaign with large numbers by the way. The only reason he’s pushing more charter schools, even in the face of teachers unions, is by making states adopt charter school rules that are open and who are applying for Race to the Top funds, I think that he’s doing that because of these Gulen schools. The Gulen schools are the Muslim schools in our country. I’m showing you how many of them are already operating, you can see there’s 107 of them. Twelve of them are opening in 2010, nine are pending, 22 were declined. There are over 150 schools in the United States that are already out there that are telling the kids of the United States of America, “hate Americans and the whole rest of the…” and you’ll hear more about that tomorrow, I’m excited you’re going to get to see that.
KEYES: Do you think the administration anticipated the rise in Gulen schools as a result of Race to the Top education money?
LITTLETON: I don’t think they tied it to the money in any way, shape or form. But I do think they intentionally – and again, this is my own opinion – but I think they probably intentionally had already thought through how they could have a proliferation and a sneaking creep, if you will, of Gulen schools by embedding their acceptance and even promotion of charter schools under this new wonderful thing of Race to the Top and “let’s fund the schools this way.” Even though there’s not really the direct funding source, I think it was the intention to promote charter schools.
KEYES: Couched in very flowery language.
LITTLETON: Absolutely.
KEYES: Why do you suppose they want to do that?
LITTLETON: Well, there’s going to be speculation, by everyone that’s out there. You yourself I’m sure have done the research, you’ve seen and heard some of the things our own president has said about the Muslims. You’ve heard that he thinks we ought to be friendly to some of their causes, that we should be tolerant in promoting some of the Muslims that are scientists and technology people. I think we need to go back and research what our president has said and by his own words and admissions, I think you can probably make the connection.
Second video:
GAFFNEY: As to this question about a Turk by the name of Gulen, this is one of those little-known stories that I’m thrilled that you’ve mentioned because it is another example of this Muslim Brotherhood kind of operation, stealth jihad. This is a fellow who I think envisions himself being the next Caliph. He is enormously influential in his native Turkey, where he has helped instigate, essentially, an Islamist takeover of the country with a wholesale repudiation and replacement of Ataturk’s secular form of government with one that is through-and-through Islamist. And that’s now increasingly making common cause with Iran, with Syria, with Hezbollah, with Hamas, which is very clearly hostile to Israel, which Turkey was until recently strategic partners with. In short, it is headed in a very dangerous direction indeed, Turkey is. This guy, Gulen, has been extending his influence by building large numbers of these schools all over the world. And the really extraordinary thing is he’s doing so from a safe haven in Rick Santorum’s great state of Pennsylvania. For a time his operation was considered a terrorist group, until inexplicably the Clinton administration decided it wasn’t anymore. And so he is churning out an insidious, seditious program from within the territory of the United States. And I would venture there isn’t one member of Congress today who has ever heard of his name, let alone understands what he is up to. We’re anxious to try to spread this word, and to those of you who are in contact with one of your five folks you are reaching out to happens to be your elected representative at the federal level or for that matter the state level, we can help educate and equip with this kind of information, we’re anxious to do it.
When it comes to hatching conspiracy theories, conservatives and Islamophobia are a match made in heaven. In the wake of Egypt’s peaceful democratic revolution, Fox News host Glenn Beck warned his viewers that former President Mubarak’s ouster portended an impending worldwide Muslim caliphate, a prediction that earned Beck the ire of even the likes of Bill Kristol. Leading neoconservative Frank Gaffney is also a regular propagator of fanciful theories of Islam, from Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the Conservative Political Action Conference to Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the United States government.
Over the next year or two, social commerce will disrupt e-commerce and social media, effectively turning our social interactions into commercial transactions. So how will this happen and where is the disruption taking place?
A Check-In Economy
You’re walking down the street staring at your phone and it’s telling you what deals are nearby. Perhaps not the best of visions but it’s the ecosystem that currently exists around check-in services like Foursquare and Facebook Places. The features are great, but staring at your phone could result into you running into something or even something running into you. It’s not elegant. The result has been an experience based on check-ins that take place when the consumer arrives at a venue.
Foursquare and Facebook both provide platforms that enable businesses to present deals or offers to visitors, in addition to rewarding visitors for repeat business. It’s an interesting business model and so far it appears to be having decent success. However, as deals disappear and users get tired of checking in, one has to wonder if this is truly the holy grail of social media marketing. If you want to know my opinion: it’s not. Check-ins are an early phase (reviews on Yelp were probably first) in a long shift which will completely disrupt commerce as we know it.
Will normal commerce continue to exist once social commerce takes hold? Definitely! However, a large portion of commerce will become much more integrated with our existing communication.
The Main Players
The goal for any business is to get more customers and more transactions (check-outs) and any new form of commerce will have to accomplish two things: It will need to empower the consumer and help transactions become frictionless. So if we examine all existing solutions through this lens, we should be able to determine how disruptive they truly are. Let’s take a look at a few.
Yelp
Yelp is one of the earliest innovators in the social commerce space. The site has empowered consumers through the amplification of their voices. Suddenly any consumer could instantly have a large (and targeted) audience of potential customers for the business they’re reviewing. Getting bad service? Try threatening the hostess or waiter with a bad Yelp review and see what they do. On a scale of one to ten, Yelp deserves a rating of ten when it comes to empowering the consumer.
As for transaction friction, Yelp has simply integrated with Open Table in order to make reservations easier. That’s about all the site has right now as far as I know, so I’d have to rate them a three on the empowerment scale.
Groupon & LivingSocial
The other major disruptors to online commerce lately have been Groupon and LivingSocial. So far though there’s very little that’s social about these services aside from them making it possible for users to share deals with others. That capability alone has helped grow these two companies to their current values in the billions. The two companies have empowered consumers through the power of numbers.
Consumers get a discounted price for a product or service, and the business gets a massive flood of new customers. While this strategy is rapidly becoming blemished with consumer and business complaints, it has proven to be extremely profitable. Shoppers also love getting a deal so it’s a win-win most of the time. As such, we’d rank these companies relatively high, like a seven, on the empowerment scale, due to the value provided.
However, the transaction isn’t exactly frictionless. After you make a purchase, you often need to go through a scheduling process, depending on the business. Given that the Groupon and LivingSocial effect can be as overwhelming as the Oprah effect, many businesses find it hard to respond to all the demand. While this model will become more integrated overtime, there hasn’t been a removal of friction for the most part, so we’ll score both companies a one on the frictionless scale.
Facebook Places And Foursquare
Facebook and Foursquare are both interesting in their approach to location and empowering the consumer. With Facebook, users could already complain to their friends. Foursquare, however, required the re-creation of a user’s social graph in order to accomplish the same thing. Ultimately, the business value of Facebook Places and Foursquare are a bit more abstract, giving businesses the ability to reward consumers for various behaviors within a given venue.
The existing rewards programs are reminiscent of traditional coupons, making them valuable for a segment of the population. While I’ve heard people extoll the values of creating a Place on Facebook or managing a venue on Foursquare, the return on investment has yet to prove itself.
For Facebook, the value presented by tracking user check-ins is improved advertising, and Deals appears to be more of an afterthought for the company, although that could change in the future. For Foursquare, the value surrounds rewarding consumers for frequenting a business.
Ultimately, I don’t find either of these products to be extremely empowering for the shopper. The main reason is that once the consumer checks in, they aren’t as likely to change their decision to shop there. Contrast that with Yelp, where a bad review can result in a lost customer. As such, I’m ranking Facebook Places and Foursquare a three on the empowerment scale and a one on the frictionless transaction scale.
While I think both products will evolve over time, this space is still extremely nascent.
The Future
The convergence of local, mobile, and social (or “SoLoMo” as John Doerr calls it) is about to generate a tidal wave of change and we stand on the cusp of it. While I could wax poetic about the future of this space, I’ll simply say that the overall shopping experience will become much more social for a large percentage of transactions. If you think about all the purchases that involve social experiences (movies, concerts, travel, etc), these spaces are only beginning to get disrupted.
While the experiences are social, right now the transactions are not. So far the only social shopping experiences which exist today either provide basic integration with Facebook, sidebar chat with friends during the shopping experience, or other basic features. Over the next one to two years, we will see a wave of innovation in the social commerce space and it won’t be like the forms of interactions we have on the web; they will be completely different. While it’s easy to call the Groupons of the world overvalued, this is a trillion dollar market that is just beginning to unfold.
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