Scouting aims to connect with Muslims

[fgoodwin]

Scouting aims to connect with Muslims

 

http://www.thestar.com/Life/article/208611

 

TheStar.com - Life - Scouting aims to connect with Muslims

 

Islam and Scouts have lots in common

 

April 30, 2007

Stuart Laidlaw

 

An early-morning paddle across a still northern lake, just as the rising sun burns off the last of the fog from the surface of the water, your thoughts full of the stories, hot chocolate and marshmallows of the campfire the night before.

 

True Canadiana, right?

 

Not for Dawood Zwink of Scouts Canada. To him, it sounds like Islam.

 

"There are traditional Canadian values that many Muslims connect with," says Zwink, a Muslim who moved to Canada from the United States last year.

 

In the fall, he was hired as a community development worker by Scouts Canada's Toronto office to promote scouting within the Muslim community. The efforts begin to pay off this Thursday, when the first of several new Islamic scout troops opens in the Toronto area.

 

Over the years, a couple of Islamic troops popped up in the Toronto area, more or less on their own. What's different now is that the scouting organization is actively recruiting Muslim scouts and parents by appealing to their faith.

 

"We're hoping it will be a major growth area for us, in the Muslim community," says Scouts Canada spokeswoman Christina Friend.

 

Rather than downplaying faith in reaction to an increasingly secular society, scouting is beginning to see its faith component as a source of growth among some communities.

 

The pitch is resonating with the Islamic community, says Zwink, who works with groups such as the Islamic Institute of Toronto to tell Muslim parents about scouting in Canada. The troops have both boys and girls, and hijabs are allowed.

 

Zwink says traditional Canadian values of caring for the environment and for each other dovetail nicely with traditional Muslim ideals of social justice and being stewards for creation.

 

"These are very much Islamic values," he says.

 

As well, he says, these are core principles enshrined in the scouting movement for the past 100 years, including a strong faith component.

 

"When it comes to scouting, and its historic values, there's a strong resonance" with Islam, he says.

 

In Canada, the faith component of scouting has traditionally been a Christian thing. I remember my own Cub Handbook from the 1970s featuring a drawing of a white Leave it To Beaver-type of family happily strolling down the sidewalk in their Sunday best to church.

 

But as jarring as such images might be in our modern secular world, scouting's religious connections have always been deliberate.

 

"We aim for the practice of Christianity in their everyday life and dealings, and not merely the profession of theology on Sundays," Lord Baden-Powell wrote in his book that got it all started, Scouting for Boys.

 

Such sentiments were fine in the Canada of the early part of the last century when being religious was pretty much synonymous with being Christian.

 

But that's not the face of Canada any more, and scouting here is changing to reflect that. Besides Islam, others religions such as Judaism have also begun to embrace scouting as a way of promoting traditional values.

 

Parents and outside observers might think that scouting is changing in Canada as it adapts to non-Christian faiths, but in many ways it is just catching up to what is happening in scouting worldwide.

 

There are already dedicated Muslim scouting groups overseeing several troops in places such as Michigan and the U.K., where there are sizable Muslim populations.

 

Internationally, Muslims make up a large part of the worldwide scouting movement. In fact, Muslim-dominated Indonesia ranks second worldwide for the number of scouts, just behind first-ranked United States.

 

Part of scouting's success worldwide has been its ability to meld its principles and practices to local custom. Faith is a strong part of the scout credo, but which faith has always been left to the individual troop or even the individual member.

 

In that light, Zwink sees the recent emphasis on promoting scouting among Toronto's growing Islamic population as a way of reflecting, within Canada's borders, the face of scouting worldwide. That means recruiting troop leaders who have experience in scouting abroad.

 

"There are many, many people who were scouts growing up" somewhere else, says Zwink, adding they can bring to Canadian scouting the experience of the movement in Muslim countries.

 

To Zwink, the connection between scouting and Islam is obvious. The scout motto of "Duty to God, Duty to Others and Duty to Self," he says, is a pretty accurate description of what it means to be a good Muslim.

 

Parents, especially those who were scouts in their homelands, see scouting as a way to integrate their kids into Canadian society by using traditional Canadian activities, such as camping, canoeing and campfires, to reinforce traditional Muslim values of working together and helping others.

 

It is, says Zwink, a marriage of old world and new, and both Muslims and his non-Muslim colleagues at Scouts Canada are sometimes pleasantly surprised at how much the two have in common.

 

"There are a lot of shared values," he says.

 

Sometimes, its seems, it takes an outsider to help us see ourselves.

 

--

Stuart Laidlaw is the Star's faith and ethics reporter.

[theysawyoucomin']

A recent poll showed about 40% of muslims in America believe that somebody(Mr. Bush, the owners, UFO's who ever...) blew up the WTC.

 

Let's assume the poll is non bias and true for the sake of the argument.

 

How do we attempt to reason with those folks?

What the heck are they doing living in a country that "eats it's young " by doing that? Isn't their "home " country better than that? Why wouldn't they go back there to live?

 

 

During WW2 good German people risked it all to hide folks from certain death. Why is it whenever a muslim religious person is asked about the WTC on the radio they say "America must change".

 

Shut your mouth or go back from whence you came. We've been changing our nation for 200 some years, there is a procedure in place. France moaned louder when McDonalds came to town, louder than we are now as 40% of 6-8 million people try to bring honor killings and stoning of rape victims into the American melting pot. We have pizza, St. Patricks day, apple kuchen, tacos, bagels, lo mein take out, and honor killing.

 

 

I agree we must change in many, many ways. But I'm not advocating the taking of life to do it.

[scoutldr]

Someone did blow up the WTC...they were Saudis. So why did we invade Iraq? I am much conflicted about this whole issue. A secretary in my office is black and a Muslim. I have learned much about the Islamic faith from this lady. She is one of the most kindest, gentlest souls I know. She is also dying of metastatic breast cancer. I have never seen anyone with so much strength and faith. She has gone through about 5 rounds of radiation and chemo, has lost half her body weight, and still comes to work every day. But I digress...

 

I am of the mind that there are good Muslims and bad Muslims (ie., "Islamofascists"). Those people are not to be reasoned with and they will not cease their fanaticism until the last "Infidel" is dead or converted. They do not hold allegiance to any country...only to Allah, whom they believe will reward them for their efforts. Life, even their own, means nothing to them. The only way to fight an enemy like this is to kill them before they kill us...if you can figure out which ones they are. I don't think they'll be wearing Scout uniforms, so that narrows it down some.

[TheScout]

Might it be time to just put a halt on Muslim immigration to America?

 

After the results of that poll I think it is better to be safe and close the gate to some so we can maintain American as a land of liberty and opportunity for its citizens.

[Lisabob]

I wonder what recent polls of non-Muslim Americans might show about the misconceptions many people seem to harbor regarding Islam and Muslims? Might not be a very pretty picture.

 

For those who are interested, here's a link to the Pew poll that came out last week on American Muslims and their views on a variety of social, cultural, and political issues. Pew is one of the most respected names in the business and has a rock solid reputation for doing unbiased work on sensitive issues.

 

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/483/muslim-americans

 

Among the major findings:

"# Overall, Muslim Americans have a generally positive view of the larger society. Most say their communities are excellent or good places to live.

 

# A large majority of Muslim Americans believe that hard work pays off in this society. Fully 71% agree that most people who want to get ahead in the United States can make it if they are willing to work hard.

 

# The survey shows that although many Muslims are relative newcomers to the U.S., they are highly assimilated into American society. On balance, they believe that Muslims coming to the U.S. should try and adopt American customs, rather than trying to remain distinct from the larger society. And by nearly two-to-one (63%-32%) Muslim Americans do not see a conflict between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society."

 

All of that sounds about as American as, well, Apple Pie to me. And although Owl's information also comes from this poll, it may be useful to note some context and additional, relevant findings:

 

"Relatively few Muslim Americans believe the U.S.-led war on terror is a sincere effort to reduce terrorism, and many doubt that Arabs were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Just 40% of Muslim Americans say groups of Arabs carried out those attacks."

 

And

 

"Muslim Americans reject Islamic extremism by larger margins than do Muslim minorities in Western European countries. ... [A]bsolute levels of support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans are quite low, especially when compared with Muslims around the world."

 

In fact, somewhere later in the report it states that 80% of American Muslims reject suicide bombings and the like too.

 

 

[TheScout]

"In fact, somewhere later in the report it states that 80% of American Muslims reject suicide bombings and the like too."

 

So only 20% of American Muslims approve of suicide bombings. Great!

 

The survey has some other scarey parts:

 

"Asked whether they believe groups of Arabs

carried out the attacks against the United States on

Sept. 11, 2001, 40% of Muslim Americans say yes,

while 28% say they do not believe this, and about

third (32%) say they do not know or decline to answer

the question."

 

So who do they think brought down the towers?

 

and

 

"Overall, 68% of Muslim Americans

view al Qaeda either very unfavorably (58%) or

somewhat unfavorably (10%). Of the rest, a

large proportion (27%) declined to express an

opinion on the terrorist group, while just 5% of

Muslims in the U.S. have a very (1%) or

somewhat (4%) favorable view of al Qaeda."

 

Only 68% have an unfavorable view of al Qaeda. I would hope it would be 100%. How can one not have an opinion on al Qaeda?(This message has been edited by TheScout)

[Lisabob]

There are good, and bad, people of every stripe. Non-Muslim, white, umpteenth generation Americans are no exception. I grew up a few miles down the road from a young man named Timothy McVeigh. I now live a few miles down the road from the former home of one of his accomplices, Terry Nichols. I certainly hope the world doesn't judge us on the basis of what these two nut jobs did inside our own country.

 

Similarly I hope most people in the Muslim world doesn't judge us on the basis of the minority of Americans who hold some serious misconceptions about what the majority of Muslims believe and do.

 

[TheScout]

32% of American Muslims would not come out and say they had an unfavorable view of al Qaeda. That is absurd.

 

All things considered. I think it would be prudent to halt further Muslim immigration into this country to better protect the liberties and opportunities of all our citizens, Muslim and non-Muslim.

[Gonzo1]

Wow,

 

It seems that BSA has been trying to bend over backwards to appeal to muslims for a while. The requirements for the Webelos badge were changed to put the mosque before church or synagogue in requirement 8e.

 

Attend the mosque, church, synagogue, temple, or other religious organization of your choice, talk with your religious leader about your beliefs. Tell your family and your Webelos den leader what you learned.

 

Doesn't it make sense to list items in some sort of order? Gee, I don't know, how about the overwhelming majority of BSA members attend churches, then synagues. How many muslims are in BSA, about a dozen? I'm not trying to be funny, it doesn't seem like muslims are knocking on our door.

 

I'm for legal immigration, not illegal immigration. I agree that we should stop muslim immigration.

 

If arabs (muslims) didn't fly planes into the WTC, who did?

 

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

OK, so it looks like Muslims are the next group to get kicked out of the BSA. Who's next?

 

As for immigration, aren't you forgetting the yellow peril?

[hot_foot_eagle]

I wish Scouting would stop pandering to different religious and ethnic groups and just try to appeal to BOYS.

 

 

[theysawyoucomin']

Scoutldr,

We invaded Iraq because they violated the provisions of the 1991 cease fire or agreement that we didn't stomp his guts out after kicking him out of Kuwait. We took it thru the UN security council. I just wonder why the resident legal eagles(ie. "sea lawyers" ) don't ever mention that. The second thought was that he had nuclear weapons. If he didn't why didn't he let Scott Ritter and others look at what he had(yet another provision of the now forgotten Kuwait era UN agreement.) He had nothing to hide right? If he didn't mess with the inspectors every day as we saw on the 6pm news , I maintain he would still be in power.

I would maintain that some neighbor of his got one heck of a nice "gun collection" during the time we fiddled around prior to getting rid of him.

 

I'm not worried about your lady at work. I'm worried about 19 more people with a good plan based on long time observations of our habits.

19 more people who count on our hopeful optimism that everybody is here to enjoy freedom and hope their kids live a better life than they did. 19 more people with unlimited funding from far away. All the acceptance of others in the world will not dissuade them from their mission. No one can convince me that they are not already here and waiting for the word to act.

 

I lost two friends in 83' when the building I lived in during part of '82 came down one calm early Sunday morning. Heck, we rescued the PLO during the beginning of that operation. Maybe we should have let the Israeli's have free reign.

 

Merlyn I'm not talking about banning anyone. I'm just wondering if the Japanese were more angry with us during WW2 because we didn't try to understand and accept them more after attacking us on a calm Sunday morning. Maybe if we tried to understand their worship of the Emperor they would have left Wake alone. Even at 10 years old Merlyn you didn't believe in God, you're on the "Shiite" list too.

 

Lisa, McVeigh and Nichols killed fellow countrymen. Who cares what they think about that? Radical Muslims hate Britney Spears, women doctors, bikinis, Americans and Jews and Christians. I'm sure some very understanding , loving people were sitting at their desk at the WTC that morning. Their understanding and optimism couldn't save them.

 

Let's say that .05% of the Muslims in America will do us harm. .05% of 6 million people is alot more than 19.

 

Trouble is I to don't know how to sort the bad from the good either, that is another strength that they have along with a weakness we have.

[Lisabob]

"A Scout is a friend to all. He is a brother to other Scouts. He seeks to understand others. He respects those with ideas and customs other than his own."

 

In this spirit, I think it is a good idea for Scouts Canada - and the BSA too - to reach out to various cultural groups. As the original article in this thread suggests, it is sometimes surprising to discover how much we have in common with "them," whoever "they" may be in a given context. Narrow-mindedness is seldom a good thing. That's all I'm going to say on this thread.

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

uz2bnowl, you're still trying to blame an entire segment of the population; most Muslim immigrants in the US are from south Asia and Africa. And as for 40% of Muslims in a survey believing something, compare that to the still large percentage of Americans who think Iraq had something to do with 9/11, and how that percentage was much larger in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq due to the deliberate actions of the Bush administration, even though nearly all of the terrorists in the attack were from Saudi Arabia.

 

And they're still doing it. Look at Cheney's commencement address at West Point earlier this week. He talks about the Iraq war and how we have to defend against terrorism like the 9/11 attack, as if Iraq had something to do with that attack.

 

You're "Let's say that .05% of the Muslims in America will do us harm" is a meaningless scare tactic. You could put "Jews" or "Christians" or "atheists" or "Communists" or "Liberals" or "Conservatives" or any other label in that sentence in place of "Muslims" and it would still be true, because it doesn't mean anything.

[TheScout]

Only 68% have an unfavorable view of al Qaeda.