He became increasing involved in politics as a teenager, when during a small demonstration close to his home town a bullet fired by a British soldier barely missed him, killing the youth behind him.
[4] After the creation of the state of Pakistan he briefly joined the Khilafat Movement in Karachi and became the editor of its newspaper, The Independent Leader.
[5] He publicly declared his support for the Islamic Revolution in Iran of 1979, and was later a defender of Ayatullah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie.
[citation needed] He died in Pretoria, South Africa on 18 April 1996, after attending the International Conference on Creating a New Civilization of Islam.
[5] He was an outspoken force in the need for an integrated body of Muslims which could exercise communal interests (the regulation of halal meat and the sighting of the Ramadan moon) and act as a lobbying body in the wider British community, like the Board of Deputies of British Jews.