London's Mecca rich: the rise of the Muslim multi-millionaires splashing their cash

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - “I want London to stand alongside Dubai as one of the great capitals of Islamic finance anywhere in the World.” It might have been difficult to imagine a British prime minister uttering that phrase 10 years ago but yesterday David Cameron delivered it to great applause at the ExCel centre, where delegates are gathering this week for the “Islamic Davos”.

It is the first time a country outside the Muslim world has hosted the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF), and the Government has taken the opportunity to announce its offering of Islamic bonds, or sukuk, and declare its door firmly open to business from Doha, Manama and Dubai.

“Islamic finance is already playing a major role in shaping the economic and physical landscape of our city,” Boris Johnson wrote before the conference, citing the Qatari-financed Shard, the Malaysian-baked redevelopment of Battersea Power Station and the Olympic Village as examples of projects paid for at least in part by sharia-compliant finance.

Farmida Bi, an expert in Islamic finance at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, says Cameron’s statement of ambition is realistic. “London has massive advantages of scale over Dubai and Kuala Lumpur [in the race to be a global Islamic financial centre],” says Bi, “and it has a reliable legal system and a vast number of professionals who can put deals together.” Bi says that the London offices of banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have joined names like HSBC and Standard Chartered in having in-house sharia experts who know how to structure deals to make them compliant with Islamic rules about interest and who consult teams of “scholars”.

Cameron and Johnson both hope that hosting the WIEF will see those property deals and company takeovers multiply but London already has plenty of financial success stories among its Muslim residents and visitors. Earlier this week the Muslim Council of Britain released an assessment of the Muslim contribution to the British economy, estimating that we have more than 10,000 Muslim millionaires, with liquid assets of more than £3.6 billion. There are 13,400 Muslim-owned businesses in London, the report said, creating more than 70,000 jobs and representing just over 33 per cent of Small to Medium Enterprises in London.

There are more than 15 Muslims on this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, including tycoons of retail, hospitality and finance, but the cast of characters helping London to get Mecca-rich is much wider.

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