Cyrus McGoldrick is a Muslim activist, artist, and academic of Iranian and Irish descent, born in the United States and living in Istanbul, Türkiye.

Cyrus graduated from Columbia University in 2010 with a B.A. in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies. He is a lifetime artist and musician, performing throughout the US and publishing a book of poetry, I of the Garden, in 2014. In those years he also dedicated himself to the revival, organization, and defense of Islam in the West, working as a director for the New York chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Coalition for Civil Freedoms (CCF), and the Islamic Leadership Council (Majlis ash-Shura) of Metropolitan New York. He served in advisory roles with Getting Out & Staying Out, Turning Point for Women and Families, and the Aafia Foundation. He became a prominent leader of New York’s Muslim communities and the regional social justice and anti-war movement, and also traveled globally in support of Islamic causes, from Brazil to Pakistan.

In 2015 Cyrus moved to Istanbul to pursue graduate education at Ibn Haldun University and traditional Islamic studies, completing an M.A. in 2018 and now working on a Ph.D. In 2017 his chapter on the political thought of Kalim Siddiqui was published in the edited volume Al-Deen wa l-Insaan wa l-‘Aalam (Tahreer). To Asim Qureshi’s edited volume I Refuse to Condemn (Manchester University Press, 2020), he contributed the essay “It is Allah that Condemns.”

For 15 years Cyrus’s insights on Islam and the West have made him a respected and sought-after speaker for schools, universities, conferences, think tanks, and media across the United States and internationally, and he continues to offer strategic consulting to media and social movements.

Contact: cyrus.mcgoldrick@gmail.com

In 2025 Cyrus worked with master silversmiths in Istanbul to launch Hoodhood Culture, a boutique selling masterfully handcrafted sterling silver rings and other fine gifts rooted in the Islamic tradition.

Visit: http://hoodhoodculture.com