The organization once known as the Boy Scouts of America just filed for bankruptcy in court, but some would say it became morally and philosophically bankrupt quite a while back.
Some years ago it allowed openly homosexual boys in its ranks, then openly homosexual adult leaders; next came “transgender” kids and girls and the removal of “boy” from its name (it’s now technically SCOUTS BSA). Interestingly, though, most of these changes probably wouldn’t sit well with another scouting innovation: all-Muslim troops who pray to Allah five times daily and don’t pledge allegiance to our nation.
Their existence and practices again came to light when Whatfinger News sent a tweet (below), which in the original included a video of a Muslim troop in action.
Claiming the Muslim Brotherhood “infiltrated” the BSA is strong language, and may or may not be entirely accurate. It’s not some new assertion out of left field, however, but is based on media reports dating back to at least 2011.
As WND.com revealed at the time:
The Boy Scouts of America maintains scouting partnerships with Islamic groups closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, WND has learned.
The Boy Scouts of America welcomes major religions, including Islam. It has incorporated under its banner a group called the National Islamic Committee on Scouting, or NICS, which provides Muslim scouts an opportunity to earn badges or emblems by participating in religious activities.
The NICS scouting emblems include an “Allahu Akbar” emblem, which means “Allah is greatest” in Arabic.
Formed in the 1920s after the demise of the Ottoman Islamic empire, the Muslim Brotherhood is the parent of most of the major jihadist groups in the world, including al-Qaida and Hamas. The prosecution of a terror-finance scheme in Texas presented evidence of the Brotherhood’s aim to destroy Western civilization and establish an Islamic society under the rule of the Quran.
There’s much more to WND’s report, too.
Just as telling, however, is a friendly, pro-Muslim-troop article from 2017 by mainstream media outlet WFAA 8 ABC. Entitled “All Muslim Boy Scout troop: What they want you to know” and featuring Troop 2690, “the first chartered Muslim troop in Northeast Ohio,” the piece starts out relating the group’s good works and touting its Americanism.
But after outlining what the boys do, WFAA informs about what “Islam is telling them NOT to do”: “say the Pledge of Allegiance.”
“We pledge our allegiance to God, not to a flag or a country,” Muhammad Samad, the troop’s chartered representative, is quoted as explaining.
WFAA then tells us that 12-year-old scout Mohammad Zoraiz has his own take. “Maybe even more than SAYING the pledge is ‘American’, is the basic tenet that we don’t HAVE TO … BECAUSE it’s America,” the site writes. “‘Our founding fathers taught that and thought of that in our country,’ says Zoraiz.”
That a preteen provided this answer indicates that the Muslim troop put a lot of thought into their reasons — some would say rationalizations — for not reciting the Pledge. As for more evidence of this, WFAA continued:
“The military, even their motto is God and country. It’s not country first,” says Committee Chair, Kareem Samad.
It is right there in that order in the very Scout oath.
“On my honor, I will try to do my best to do my duty to God and my country,” scout Numayr Abdulalim reminds us.
… When Kareem Samad says, “For us, God is always first,” he says that goes for ALL MUSLIMS in ALL COUNTRIES.
So these scouts would submit it’s not “Anti-American.” It’s “Pro God.”
Perhaps. But do note that members of the military may have their motto and other scouts their oath, but they all say the Pledge.
But be not troubled. WFAA later pointed out that scouting isn’t “as American as apple pie,” anyway, because it originated in Britain. Besides, said a BSA representative, “Muslims make up, in fact, probably the majority of scouting when you consider the scouting organizations in the far east [sic].”
So there you have it, Islamophobes, it’s practically a Muslim organization! (Except for the sexual devolutionary policies.)
In fairness, I’ve no doubt that many Muslim scouts are well-meaning, and they are correct in saying God comes first. Any person with deep faith agrees, and it’s why Christians may resist the government when it tries to compel them to service faux (same-sex) weddings or facilitate prenatal infanticide.
So theists are right to put God first. They’re right to defy the government’s laws when the government defies God’s laws. They’re right to be willing to die for God. But there is a complicating factor: Before we can know with the given theists whether to stand in the phalanx with them or face off against them, two questions must be asked.
Who do you say God is?
What is your conception of what He demands of you?
And since true believers will die for — and perhaps kill for — their faith, getting the answers really matters.
Often forgotten here is that while doctrinal differences exist among different Christian sects and Jews, they all have the same basis for their moral law: the 10 Commandments.
Islam’s basis is different: It’s sharia law. Also note that “the Center for Security Policy released a 2015 poll of Muslims in the US showing that ‘a majority (51 percent) agreed that ‘Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Shariah’” — as opposed to American civil law, as I reported in 2017.
But what of injunctions to commit violence? The New Testament contains no words at all devoted to political violence; the Old Testament contains 34,039 such words, though the enjoinments were generally only applicable in a certain historical time and/or place.
The Islamic canon, however — which comprises not just the Koran but also the Hadith and Sira — contains almost 10 times as many words devoted to jihad. Moreover, the injunctions often are eternal and universal. A good example is Koran (8:15): “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”
Yet far more significant than what’s taught is what’s more often caught: virtues (and vices). Remember that people don’t follow ideas; they follow people, which is why any good parent appreciates a good example’s importance. It’s also why Christians may ask, “What would Jesus do?”
Likewise, Muslims consider their prophet Mohammed “The Perfect Man,” the ultimate role model. Yet far from the prince of peace, Mohammed was a warlord, caravan raider (a bandit), and slave owner and trader. He ordered massacres, used torture, and had dissidents assassinated. He also was a polygamist and made it lawful for masters to have sexual relations with their female captives.
In other words, as with Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, and many others, Mohammed was very much a man of his time. But to more than a billion people, he’s also the perfect man even in our time. That’s the point, too. For if someone told you Attila the Hun was the perfect man and his role model, would you turn your back on that person?
So all this perhaps explains a very interesting German study involving 45,000 young people. Released in 2010, it found that while increasing religiosity made Christian youth less violent, it made Muslim youth more violent.
None of this involves casting judgment on individual Muslims any more than it involves doing so with individual Boy Scouts. But calling someone “a real Boy Scout” used to mean he was virtuous, honorable, and trustworthy. It’s hard to know what it means today.
Image: Screenshot from video by WFAA ABC Channel 8
Selwyn Duke (@SelwynDuke) has written for The New American for more than a decade. He has also written for The Hill, Observer, The American Conservative, WorldNetDaily, American Thinker, and many other print and online publications. In addition, he has contributed to college textbooks published by Gale-Cengage Learning, has appeared on television, and is a frequent guest on radio.
