where they can build healthy friendships with other Muslims. “The whole premise behind boy scouting is teaching our boys leadership skills through outdoor activities that test them—a leader only gets to be a leader after going through some trials,” says Rambo. The rank structure that is an essential component of scouting helps reinforce the aspect of challenge based learning and competition. “As you slowly acquire a new skill, they transfer you to another rank. Boys and girls have a value for accomplishment. Our whole aim is to trick the kids into teaching them leadership skills by masking them into fun and play.” Rank advancement culminates in the Eagle Scout rank. A scout must accomplish many things before reaching the Eagle rank but once the rank is achieved, it is an achievement that helps the scout immensely in the future. When an Eagle Scout goes to college or in the job market, the employer knows that everything else in that person’s life is also exemplary. For Girls Scouts, the highest rank is known as Gold.
Out of the more than 115 million boys who have passed through the Boy Scouts of America in the last 102 years, approximately two million have become Eagle Scouts—a level that has come to be called “the Ph.D. of Boyhood.” Scouts can earn merit badges in a number of activities of interest that they engage in. The BSA lists more than 100 merit badges, from archaeology to veterinary medicine. The merit badges are ways to introduce the youth to all the opportunities out there for them that could be potential career options. In addition to the regular merit badges, Muslim Scouts can earn special emblems by studying certain subjects of theology as well as by engaging in faith-related community service. Each Scouting group decides its own method of action and program content. So while some centers may not focus too much on Islamic knowledge and lessons in their activities, other mosques and centers might choose to keep their program religioncentric by incorporating examples from
Islamic Horizons September/October 2012
the Quran and Sunnah. For example, Faiza Rahman, Girl Scouts coordinator for the MAS Youth Center of Dallas, Tex., explains how her group always uses examples from the Sunnah. “When we teach the girls about the aspect of honesty in the Scout Law we also tell them stories of the Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and how he used to be honest.” Scouting is also instrumental in providing Muslim youth with mentorship in the form of positive relationships with adults that serve as good role models. Some groups also have chaplains who provide spiritual guidance to the youth on issues of concern to them. “For me as a mom, this is the best thing you can offer to your children for friendship, leadership and fun,” says Badria Kafala, mother of 12-year-old Yosaf Omeish who is a boy scout. Kafala put her son into Muslim scouting so that he could have Muslim friends from the community. “It helps the kids especially when they are teens—they can have a group where they can spend 31