My current work challenges the persistent and misleading perception of the Turkish society and state as divided by the fault-lines between Muslim and secular politics .In sharp disagreement with both the discontents and apologetics of Islam, I argue that the axis of conflict has shifted from Islam vs. secularism. Put differently, Turkey is no longer contesting issues over Islam versus secular democracy the way Europe increasingly does. Now that Turkey is done with the inclusion of the pious Muslims, it has moved on to another struggle –contestation in the aftermath of inclusion. Hence, contrary to the predominant view that sees urban contestation as a threat to democracy, my findings suggest that divided urban sides push efficiently for a liberal democracy that can secure liberties and rights. The paper is part of a larger ethnography on highly contested urban sites, which I conducted since 2007. One of these divided sites is an academically competitive and most liberal university campus in Istanbul. Although the faculty and students split deeply with regard to pious versus secular politics on campus, particularly over the headscarf issue, they unite indiscriminately and most promptly when it comes to the violation of academic freedom, arbitrary detentions as well as government’s crack down on Kurdish people. Most importantly, these campus-wide protests cross the deep fault lines between pious Muslim and secular camps, and thereby create new alliances between them towards a more liberal democracy. This paper is part of a larger ethnographic project on the intimate links between urban space and contestation over freedom and rights in the context of democratization.