Tariq Modood is professor of sociology, politics and public policy and the founding director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship at the University of Bristol. He is a regular contributor to the media and policy debates. His books include (as co-editor) Ethnicity, Nationalism and Minority Rights and Ethnicity, Social Mobility and Public Policy: Comparing the US and UK (both Cambridge University Press, 2004), Multiculturalism, Muslims and Citizenship: A European Approach (Routledge 2005), and (as sole author) Multicultural Politics: Racism, Ethnicity and Muslims in Britain (Edinburgh University Press, 2005). His latest book is Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea (Polity, published on 21 May 2007).

Recent articles

A thoughtful lecture on legal pluralism by a Christian leader has been succeeded in Britain by a torrent of ill-informed and prejudiced comment about Islam-based law and influence. This is a moment to reaffirm the principles on which social harmony is founded, says Tariq Modood: foremost among them the intertwining of citizenship and multicultural recognition.

openDemocracy's debate on Tariq Modood's new articulation of multiculturalism focused on issues of liberalism, communalism, cosmopolitanism, and transnational Muslim identity. Here, Tariq Modood replies to his interlocutors.

The idea of multiculturalism faces intense criticism from voices who blame it for accentuating social division, reinforcing Muslim separateness and undermining national identity. But a developed view of multiculturalism can complement democratic citizenship and nation-building, says Tariq Modood.

The Danish cartoon scandal poses a stark choice to "progressive" citizens and thinkers in western Europe, says Tariq Modood.

Britain’s multicultural model is held responsible for the London bombs of July 2005. Rather, says Tariq Modood, it needs to be extended to a “politics of equal respect” that includes Britain’s Muslims in a new, shared sense of national belonging.