Are the British your teachers?

Pakistan hardliners honour bin Laden in Rushdie row;

A group of hardline Pakistani Muslim clerics said on Thursday they had bestowed a religious title on Osama bin Laden in response to a British knighthood for author Salman Rushdie.

The Pakistan Ulema Council gave bin Laden the title "Saifullah", or sword of Allah, in response to the knighthood awarded to Rushdie last week for services to literature.

I'm a bit confused- for these 'Ulema' the British seems to be their teachers.