But that does not mean all Deobandis, either in Britain or South Asia, support violence. Just as well, given that at least 16 of Britain’s 22 Muslim “seminaries” (in other words, places that offer intensive, full-time Islamic instruction from the age of 12 upwards) are of the Deobandi persuasion. Their curriculum is modelled on Islamic learning under the Mogul empire.

Tim Winter, an influential British convert to Islam, believes that for all their narrow intensity, the British Deobandi seminaries won’t foster violence: their ethos is cautious and traditional. But some alumni of Britain’s Deobandi institutions do advocate self-segregation by Muslims, especially where local indigenous culture is dominated by alcohol and drugs.

Anyway, in Britain as in Pakistan, a plurality of ordinary South Asian Muslims follows a different form of the faith: the Barelvi tradition, which celebrates shrines, saints and music. One pioneer of Muslim education in Britain is of the Barelvi school: Musharraf Hussain, an imam who runs a school, mosque, radio station and magazine in Nottingham. He fears that among Britain’s Muslim establishment, sectarian splits are becoming “entrenched and fossilised”. Some Deobandis retain a deep sense of victimhood and grievance.

Clearly, some young British Muslims ignore the sectarian issues that gripped their parents. Sometimes this reflects secularisation. Sometimes it reflects the opposite: belief in a “global umma”, or community, that differentiates all Muslims from all non-believers. Still, the Nottingham imam has observed one unexpected side-effect from the turmoil engulfing Pakistan. Many British Muslims, he thinks, will “move on” in a healthy way. They will give up the dream of resettling in South Asia and put down firmer roots in Britain.

... contd.