The Sunday Times Rich List published last week shows that the contribution of Muslims to the British economy has increased threefold in eight years. There are 36 Muslim entries this year in the Sunday Times Rich List. This includes Mahdi al Tajir at number 31 with an estimated wealth of 1,550 million pounds. Other billionaire Muslims include Yusuf Hamied at 1,320 millions and Nadhmi Auchi at 1,200 millions. The fourth and final Muslim billionaire is Wafic Said who has an estimated 1,000 millions. Said is the sponsor of the Said Business School at Oxford University.

International businessmen make up the majority of the highest Muslim entries on the list. Many of the other 36 entries have built up their business empires through the food industries. Sir Anwar Pervez, Iqbal Ahmed, Fakhruddin Suterwalla and Gulam Noon all feature in the Rich List and have all succeeded in the food and retail market. Others have however ventured away from the traditional ‘Asian economies’ such as James Caan and Shaf Rasul who have made their money in recruitment and e-commerce respectively. Both are relatively younger entrepreneurs and hopefully represent a shift in Muslim business activity in Britain. Ed Balls has been heard suggesting that Muslim communities as well as others can act as bridges between Britain and the rest of the world in an increasingly global economy. This may well turn out to become an advantage that the community can offer this country linking its high tech industries, for example, with global markets.

A comparison with the same Rich List of 2002 shows that the number of Muslim entries on the list has increased from 19 in 2002 with a net wealth of 3,100 million pounds to 36 entries in 2010 with a net wealth of 11,201 million pounds. This is an increase in net wealth of over three fold. The entries of 2002 have mostly survived the recession and 12 of the 19 are in the 2010 list, most having witnessed their wealth increase considerably. This reflects the general trend of increasing wealth for the richest in Britain. The number of billionaires in total has increased in the past eight years from 20 in 2002 to 53 in 2010. The richest person in 2002 had an estimated wealth of 4.7 billion, today it is 22.5 billion.