Part two Response to Tariq Modood - Accommodating religions: Who's accommodating whom?

A key intention of our original paper was to open up a discussion about the increasing influence that religious groups are having on social policy in the UK. In this regard, we very much welcome Professor Tariq Modood’s response and contribution to the debate on ‘multiculturalism’s new fault lines’. The concern we expressed in our original argument focused on the increasing accommodation of religion within state multiculturalism in both general terms, and also in the case of particular substantive demands that were being accommodated. In doing so we argued that this represented a dangerously uncritical attitude to the growing influence of religious absolutism and fundamentalism, particularly in the UK and also further afield.