However, it should be noted that Kureishi describes these shifts from monoculture to multiculture and the kinds of social formation multiculturalism throws up. He is not an advocate for these shifts. As Sara Upstone points out, "To read Kureishi as an upholder of multiculturalism … does not offer the most accurate rendering of his position. For Kureishi does not subscribe to the concept of multiculturalism as a toleration of individual communities and ethnic differences." Thus, although he celebrates the results of multiculturalism as lived experience, he is deeply suspicious of political moves to harness the politics of recognition.

DEFINE: Distinguishes Kureishi's nuanced position: he embraces multiculturalism as lived experience while rejecting it as political ideology.

Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, loc. 170