Gülen not granted green card
Thursday, June 26, 2008
RAZİ CANİKLİGİL
NEW YORK – Hürriyet
Controversial Islamic scholar Fetullah Gülen’s application for a U.S. Permanent Resident Card, widely known as the “green card,” has been refused by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS.
He has also lost the lawsuit he filed for the reconsideration of the verdict. The court found the arguments Gülen had set forth to receive the green card as “an extraordinarily talented academic” to
be insufficient.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Stewart Dalzell ruled in favor of Immigration Services. Upon the verdict, Gülen, the leader of a religious movement with interests in
the media and education sector, needs to leave the United States in one month’s time. However, the time Gülen can illegally stay in the country can go as high as six months.
Gülen’s financial resources were detailed in the public prosecutor’s arguments, which claimed that Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Turkish government, and the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA,
were behind the Gülen movement. It stated that some businessmen in Ankara donated 10 to 70 percent of their annual income to the movement and that it corresponded to $20,000 to $300,000 per year per person. It added that one businessman in Istanbul donated $4-5 million each year and that young people graduating from Gülen’s schools donated between $2,000 and $5,000 each year.
The prosecutor said Gülen was a religious and political figure and that, aiming to gain academic prestige, paid academics to write about him and his movement. The prosecutor added, “None of Gülen’s books are about education or educational models; they are entirely religious works. Moreover, the statement that an educational model has been created by blending traditional secular educational system and tolerance toward faiths is not convincing.”
© 2005 Dogan Daily News Inc. www.turkishdailynew s.com.tr
Leave a Reply