This talk is based on Tariq Modood and Thomas Sealy's The New Governance of Religious Diversity (2024). The book is guided by two questions: an empirical one about how states govern religious diversity and a normative one about how religious diversity should be governed. Our approach is based on a position that views the relationship between the empirical and normative as one of close entwinement. Eschewing Euro-American-centric perspectives that define secularism in terms of religious freedom or treat a particular country as a paradigm (typically the USA or France), we argue there are multiple secularisms present across different global contexts. Yet, this is not mere descriptivism or relativism. Our analytical framework is designed not merely to capture specific countries or change over time or enable comparative empirical understanding, but it is also the basis for a normative engagement with modes of secularism, a multicultural secularism based on the Bristol School of Multiculturalism.