In this Part, John D’Arcy May (Chapter One) argues that secularisation occurs differently depending on context but that a process of political secularisation is not necessarily concomitant with a decline in religiosity among the population. This leads him to ask whether or not religion can, or should, be allowed a role in the politics of an otherwise ‘secular’ state. Also dealing with the process of secularisation is Adam Possamai, in Chapter Two, which critiques the boundaries and categories social researchers have developed around issues of secularisation and religiosity.

Tariq Modood in Chapter Three explores political multiculturalism, and the kinds of specific policy demands that are being made by, or on behalf of, religious groups, and Muslim identity politics, in particular. For Modood, the inclusion of Islam as an organised religion and of Muslim identity as a public identity are necessary to integrate Muslims and to pursue religious equality. Furthermore, he argues that although such inclusion might run against certain interpretations of secularism, it is not inconsistent with what secularism means in practice in Europe. For Modood, an evolving, moderate secularism that can support compromise should be developed and encouraged, rather than an ideological secularism that is being reasserted which opposes Islam – this needing to be resisted no less than the radical anti-secularism of some Islamists.

Holly Randell-Moon focuses her chapter (Chapter Four) on the representation of secularism in Australian constitutional and lego-political discourse. Specifically, she argues that hegemonic constructions of both modernity and secularism have allowed for the strategic deployment of such terms to marginalise minority religious groups in Australia. Gordon Lynch's chapter (Chapter Five) explores the theoretical implications of the intersection between religion and ‘secular’ lifestyle media. Lynch argues that secular contemporary lifestyle media might be viewed as being an example of the ‘invisible religion’ of late modern Western society. In this chapter, Lynch considers the concept of ‘invisible religion’ and its implications for the study of religion and the sacred in contemporary culture.