Coming up next in Afterwords

Weekend is almost here; here's what's in the Afterwords oven for you.

Next Subtext: how did a Sufi cult, often persecuted under Ottoman rulers, give rise to the Islamist mayor of Istanbul who goes on to become the Prime Minister and amazes dictatorial powers as the President of Turkey; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Next Text Messages: Islamist Kurds, Secular Turkey; how did a feudal Islamist Kurdish society and an unkind secular state give rise to a deadly rebellion by a violent neo-Zoroastrian cult with Marxist underpinnings.

Next Weekend Read: Baha’i, a dangerous cult from the land of dangerous cults; what makes the Baha’i unpalatable to Iranian rulers, from the Shah to the Supreme Leader.

In other news: two weekly podcasts are in the works; a Turkish language one featuring a research scholar (IR and history) from Istanbul and me. And, a Spanish language one featuring a Colombian academic (Persian studies) from Bogota, a Mexican journalist from Mazatlán, and me.