One of the five pillars of Islam is charitable giving and there could be no greater charitable cause for British Muslims than to open and fund schools for girls all over Pakistan. Some of this work is already undertaken but it is piecemeal and erratic.

The other major contribution would be to invite Pakistani politics to turn away from Islamism. Tariq Ali dismisses almost frivolously the notion of jihadi Islamist politics in Pakistan. He sees no real threat in the development of Islamist terrorist attacks because they cannot fundamentally overthrow and displace major state power. This is true but misses the point. The Pakistani-originated jihadi attacks in Mumbai are still reverberating months later. The jihadi attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team undermine Pakistan's resilience by removing the pleasures of the nation's favourite game as it is denied international cricket tours.

I am writing this in India. Every day, there are passionate denunciations of Pakistan in the media and rumbling threats about missile attacks on Pakistan to punish it for hosting the camps from which the Mumbai killers were dispatched. Yet it requires little training to fire an AK47 into a random crowd or still less to put explosives into a waistcoat and kill a Jewish granny or child waiting for a bus in Israel.