Moreover, we might claim that Kureishi's lack of sympathy for Islamic collective-identity positions as symbolized by Riaz's group actually undermines his argument for the novel as a space of jostling views, many voices, and dialogue. Ruvani Ranasinha has observed how "The Black Album's monolithic portrait of the Islamic believers does not articulate a range of heterogeneous voices on its central issues," meaning there is no genuine polyphony.

Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, loc. 179