This is why a contention last week by Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, is particularly outrageous. In a debate in the Security Council he drew a thread between terrorists in his country’s northwest and the clerics at Deoband. Leaders of the Jamiat Ulema -e-Hind and the Darul Uloom have rightfully refused to let it go uncontested. Haroon had argued: “It is for the clerics in Deoband, who wield great influence in the North West Frontier... and FATA, to come to Pakistan, get together and embed, offer a fatwa in Pakistan against suicide bombing and killings of Muslims in Pakistan and also in India.” As the deputy vice-chancellor of the Darul Uloom told this newspaper: “I find it very hard to believe such a linkage has been drawn... we certainly exercise no influence over them [terrorists].”

Much scholarly work has made clear the distinction between Deoband and Deobandi madrasas, especially those in Pakistan’s northwest. But the affront in Haroon’s statement is also this: religious organisations in India work separate from the state while being held to the laws of the land. Their statements — fatwas, in this case — can at most be seen to be opinions on best practice to believers. They do not state what is unlawful; that is the state’s domain. Haroon needs to educate himself not just on Deoband, but also on the political framework of the country in which it is geographically situated.