Born in Deoband, India, Usmani was a judge on the Shariah Court in Pakistan and on the Shariah Appellate Bench of the Pakistan Supreme Court, a position he occupied for more than 20 years.

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On 10 January, leading Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband - which is based in Uttar Pradesh - called on the government to block Salman Rushdie's visit as he "had annoyed the religious sentiments of Muslims in the past".

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Still, in their Islamic scenes Britain and Pakistan do have one simple thing in common: religious education is dominated by purist teachers, who trace their roots to the Indian town of Deoband where an Islamic place of learning was founded in 1866.

ECONOMIST: Islam in Britain and South Asia