Notes

Islamist foundations with dubious funding expand network in U.S.

Turkey's Islamist foundations with funding from controversial figures such as Saudi businessman who is on the United States terrorist list are expanding their network in the U.S., from launching an Islamist school in New Jersey to expanding dorm networks in New York.

The school in Clifton, NJ, is part of a growing network of Turkish Islamist foundations in the U.S., jointly built by Miraj Islamic Schools and Türken Foundation, newly empowered body with shady ties to the Turkish government. The foundation is funded by Turkey-based Foundation for Youth and Education, or TÜRGEV, which is at the heart of the nation's biggest corruption scandal.

TÜRGEV was accused of receiving bribes from businessmen in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's corruption ring in a searing indictment filed by Turkish prosecutors last December. Erdoğan described the indictment as a "coup" against his authority "orchestrated by international dark circles." Its chief Bilal Erdoğan, son of the current Turkish president, was among suspects in the corruption investigation. A voice recording that surfaced on the Turkish media earlier this year revealed Bilal's ties with Yasin al-Qadi, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. President Erdoğan himself called al-Qadi a "good friend of his family."

TÜRGEV is the major funding source of the Türken Foundation, which established an Islamist school in Clifton, NJ, last month and is considering to open another one in Brooklyn, NY. The school in Clifton is a joint project by Miraj Islamic Schools, which has been running another school in Staten Island, NY, since 1996. The New York-based Türken Foundation also has eight small dorms, three of them only in the Staten Island and two in Manhattan.

At a time when Turkey was rocked with an embarrasing corruption investigation, Turkish opposition blasted the government for failing to inspect a major donation to the TÜRGEV, one of financial sources of Türken Foundation, by a source called Royal Protocol. Turkish opposition and media claimed that $100 million donation of Royal Protocol came from Saudi Arabia and possibly from al-Qadi.

The Türken Foundation is also funded by Ensar Foundation, a Turkey-based organization promoting what it says "Islamic values." One of Ensar's founders is Kadir Topbaş, Istanbul's incumbent mayor and part of Erdoğan's corruption ring. In leaked voice recordings earlier this year, Topbaş was revealed to be helping al-Qadi in getting lucrative state deals. Ensar Foundation has a wide network in Turkey and works closely with preacher schools, distributing Islamic materials for free and providing scholarship for students studying in Islamic schools.

Ensar Foundation recently hit the headlines in the Turkish media for allegedly assisting the militants from the Islamic State, which has overran much of northern and eastern Syria as well as large swaths of Iraq, including Mosul, to recruit jihadists to fight in Syria and Iraq. The media reports claimed that the Islamic State militants use foundations such as Ensar to force Syrian refugees to join jihadists in Syria, either through persuasion or threat.