Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

By Alan Kornman

The Atlantic Institute will be partnering with the Maitland Holocaust Center and the Interfaith Council of Central Florida on a special program titled, “Is History Repeating Itself? Jewish and Muslim Immigrant Experiences in America,” scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 25 at the Holocaust Center.

The Atlantic Institute is partnered with the Alliance for Shared Values, which is openly affiliated with the Gülen Movement’s Hizmet social initiatives in the United States. On their website, the Atlantic Institute praises Fethullah Gülen as their Imam and political leader.

Recently, FBI agents carried out raids at 19 Gülen Charter schools in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio as part of an “ongoing white-collar crime matter.” The investigations are still ongoing, however, this is a clue the Atlantic Institute and the Gülen Movement are not all about interfaith peace and love.

IBTimes, Michael Kaplan reported on Oct. 29, 2015, “Fethullah Gülen has been placed on Turkey’s most wanted terrorist list along with leaders of the Islamic State militant group... the Turkish government seeks Gülen’s extradition from the U.S.” This is a clue there is a serious terrorist problem with the Gülen movement’s leader.

On its website the Atlantic Institute is promoting the Feb. 25th event this way: “It’s difficult to imagine any political discussion today that does not include some mention of immigration. There are increasing concerns about border security, and ongoing debates about whom we will allow in to our country and who we must keep out.”

“For the Jewish community, particularly among Survivors and their families, this concern feels in some ways like their own history. Jewish immigrants to America at the beginning of the 1900s and up to WWII era faced many of the same types of suspicions that Muslim-Americans, particularly immigrants, face today.”

Joel B. Pollak, in his Nov. 17, 2015, article, “Why Syrian Refugees Are Not Like Jewish Refugees in WWII,” makes this compelling observation challenging the entire premise of the Feb. 25th event at the Maitland Holocaust Center. Pollak said, “Jews were singled out for persecution by the Nazis, not (initially) fleeing an ongoing war. If anyone has a unique moral claim that parallels the Jews of Europe, it is the Syrian Christians, Iraqi Yazidis, and other minorities being persecuted by radical Islamist forces in the Middle East. But that is not true of the broader wave of Syrian refugees. That is not to blame them for the war, but it does suggest there is a good moral case for distinguishing among refugees, rather than admitting all who wish to come.”

Publicly, the Gülen Movement and their franchises sell themselves as a peaceful interfaith group. I’m sorry to tell you this, many American’s gladly buy into these wolves in sheep’s clothing Islamist interfaith partners because they sell coexistence and peace. Like Gulen, however, many of these Islamist interfaith groups have very close ties to the Global Jihad Movement.

Dig a little deeper into the Gülen Movement and you find FBI raids, Turkey designating Gülen a most wanted terrorist, and Gulen’s use of spycraft to violently spread strict Islamic Law after infiltrating governments power centers, as articulated in his sermon above.

The Atlantic Institute scored a big propaganda victory being invited inside the hallowed halls of the Maitland Holocaust Memorial Center in a deceptive effort to raise the status of Syrian refugees off the backs of persecuted Jews from the pogroms to the Holocaust. I’m confident behind closed doors the Gülen movement and the Atlantic Institute are pleased how easily manipulated the Maitland, FL Holocaust Memorial Center’s leadership is.

If the Holocaust Center is sincerely looking to dialogue with a true Muslim reform group; I suggest they contact my friend Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.

Family Security Matters Contributing Editor Alan Kornman is the regional coordinator of The United West-Uniting Western Civilization for Freedom and Liberty. His email is: alan@theunitedwest.org.