By Hakan Topal, April 24, 2026 What concerns me is not criticism of the West. That critique is necessary and I share it. Colonialism, slavery, racial violence, the ongoing targeting of Muslims in Europe and the United States — these…
Over the last 40+ years, we have been bombarded with clichés about Islam. Shit media intellectuals endlessly argue for a moderate version of Islam that would sit comfortably within so-called Western ideals. Beneath all this talk, there has been a…
The dismantling of the social state wasn’t a conspiracy—it was a bipartisan project carried out in plain sight. For decades, under the banner of “public reform,” both Democrats and Republicans chipped away at public institutions. Austerity budgets gutted public services…
Ok, I’m biased, but xurban_collective’s research was a bit ahead of its time. 😉 We tackled issues most people ignored, dissecting the dynamics shaping our contemporary political world. In 2009, we launched the Evacuation Series to explore ad-hoc architectural spaces—masjids…
In this election cycle, what we needed was transformative imagination—new ideas to ignite the old and inspire the young. Instead, Democrats, as usual, turned away from bold visions and a true commitment to public welfare and peace, ceding ground to…
Forty years ago, in their influential article ‘The Fine Art of Gentrification’ (published in October Magazine, Winter 1984), Rosalyn Deutsche and Cara Gendel Ryan explored the complex political economy of gentrification and the eviction of thousands of Black and Latin…
We are indeed living in dark times: racists/fascists are exerting tremendous pressure to silence dissenting voices, thereby threatening the very foundations of our fragile democracies. In the face of extreme polarization and disappointing positions taken by some intellectuals (Habermas, et…
I recently visited the Hagia Sophia for the first time after its conversion and felt overwhelming sadness. What Happened to the Hagia Sophia Is a Terrible Shame
I have been thinking about the Trump Presidency. Like everybody, I am extremely upset and startled. Considering the Turkish and various European cases, IMO, Trump will incorporate a combination of social democrat and racist/discriminatory policies and do the following: Economy…