This choice quote comes from a young white Christian American Boy Scout upon reflecting on meeting young brown Muslim American Boy scouts at a Scouting Jamboree. Its from a very interesting article in Time Magazine about Muslim Boy Scouts. Its jarring for me to realize that in the US Boy Scouts have been affiliated with the Christian faith. Growing up in Karachi I was a cub and a boy scout as part of our Jamat Khana activities and never once thought of it as being a Christian Institution. Strange. Any way Scouting is one way for integration between various communities.
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My own brown, Muslim 8-yr old son is a Wolf (or is it a Bear?) cub. I’ve been hoping he’d get bored with it, but no luck so far. I don’t think the Boy Scouts are specifically a Christian institution since there are majority Muslim packs up around Dearborn (isn’t everything?), MI, somwhere. Since my son’s pack is associated with his Catholic parochial school, Roman Catholicism appears to be the dominant theme (priests opening meetings, the Our Father recited — nothing too heavy). I don’t mind — I can hardly complain about Catholic prayers at scouting since he attends Catholic school.
P.S. — I don’t think my son smells like incense, but more likely “Downy” dryer sheets. : ^)