Multicultural Secularism, Equality and Faith Schools

In The New Governance of Religious Diversity , Tariq Modood and Thomas Sealy endorse the expansion of state funded faith schools as a way to better recognise, accommodate and include religious minorities. Drawing on the case of Britain, this commentary argues that faith schools’ far-reaching exemptions from equality law in fact exacerbate Islamophobia and can hardly be reconciled with the authors’ egalitarian commitments. An alternative approach of removing the exemptions and making all schools religiously diverse would address internal tensions in Muslim demands and clear the path for new political alliances between Muslim and non-religious groups.