Word: britain
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Dubai's rise had been decades in the making, but the property market really exploded following a 2003 law change that made it easier for foreigners to own land. With credit cheap and readily available, no income tax, and many more sunshine hours than Britain or Russia, Dubai attracted a new wave of Europeans, who arrived with big hopes and little understanding of Muslim values. In one infamous culture clash, two Britons were imprisoned for having sex on a public beach and insulting police officers after a drunken Friday brunch...
...agreed upon was real estate, and the property frenzy was soon dragging in locals and newcomers alike. Nightclub promoters became fund managers overnight, simply by collecting money from their pub mates back home. "It's not rocket science," says Martin Rumney, a 44-year-old former golf instructor from Britain turned Dubai real estate agent. "This is pretty easy money. You just have to be a people person...
Nigel Knight, a 45-year-old carpenter from Britain, started a lobbying group of disgruntled Dubai investors after he found that the developer of a villa he'd bought near the future site of Dubailand wasn't depositing his money in an escrow account reserved for construction funds. He suspects his and other investors' money was used by the developer to purchase more land and then sell off more units without ever starting construction at a single site. "It seems to be some kind of Ponzi scheme," he says. What's worse, he then discovered that the company may have...
...saying, 'We want pizzas, we want Big Macs.' " Domino's now sources halal pepperoni from a Malaysian company for the pizzas it sells from Kuala Lumpur to Birmingham; KFC is testing halal-only stores in Muslim areas of the U.K., and the Subway sandwich chain has halal franchises across Britain and Ireland. (See pictures: "The Hajj Goes High-Tech...
Western Muslims, whose minority status sharpens their sense of identity, are also helping refine the notion of a Muslim lifestyle. In Britain, advertisers are increasingly embracing the power of the "green" pound (that's Islamic green, not environmental green), says Sarah Joseph, editor of Emel, a glossy lifestyle monthly for British Muslims. When Emel launched in 2003, the notion of a Muslim lifestyle barely existed. "People were confused that we could present everything from food, fashion, travel and gardening, all from a Muslim perspective," says Joseph. But Muslims are the fastest-growing segment of the middle class in Britain; they...