Daily Times

The Muslims in Britain had a growing attitude for enterprise and positive contribution to the British economy and society as a whole, according a report by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).

The first comprehensive report about the Muslims in the UK by the UK representative body of Muslims (MCB) said that the around 2.7 million Muslim are living in the UK, making them around 5 percent of the total UK population, with 1 in 20 people being Muslim.

The findings of the report states that almost half of the Muslims are British born and overwhelming majority of Muslims 73% identify themselves as British, only 6% of the Muslim struggling with speaking English.

The MCB findings claim that Britain is home to the one of the most diverse communities on the earth, the evidence show that Muslims in the UK are geographically widely dispersed which counter the perception of Self- segregation. However, it also indicates that there is concentration of Muslims in the inner cities across the UK.

The most encouraging factor in the report suggests that the level of education among the Muslims increased over the last decade. Around 330,000 Muslims are in the full-time education and almost half of them are female. The findings also suggest that the number of Muslims in the higher professional and managerial class has increased with almost 6% of Muslims in such jobs. Similarly, a large number of Muslims are small employers and self- employed businessman this indicates that that the Muslims wants to contribute to the UK economy. The report points out that there is still high level of unemployment amongst the Muslims women which the report suggests demonstrating the need for further policy work for both the government and Muslim Community. The most concerning aspect of the report relates to the issue of deprivation of the Muslims, as it states that almost half of the Muslim resides in 10 % most deprived local authorities in the England which it says directly impacting on their educational achievement, income and health.

According to the data of MCB, 26 UK Parliament constituencies have a Muslim population of 20 % or more and there are currently 15 Muslim Members of Parliament with 8 of them being women. The UK current Chancellor of Exchequer Sajid Javid and Mayor London Sadiq Khan are also from the Muslim families.