Tariq Modood argues that European states are only ‘moderately secular' and that this kind of
secularism is compatible with public accommodation of religious groups and provides a model of
Muslim integration appropriate for European states. Although attention to the fact of moderate
secularism provides a response to a prominent argument against multicultural accommodation of
religious minorities, what is really at stake in discussions of multiculturalism and secularism are
political principles. Modood's case for accommodation of Muslims along the lines of moderate
secularism presupposes a normative conception of equality, but his characterisation of multicultural
equality is inadequate in several respects