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The Girl Scouts were founded in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia, by Juliette "Daisy" Low, with the idea that girls could "unlock their full potential, find lifelong friends, and make the world a better place." Women didn't have the same opportunities that they would later gain, and Low wanted girls to find their strengths and create their own opportunities.
The Girl Scouts that were intended to liberate girls from what the Girl Scouts call "strict social norms" now advocate for a religion that oppresses girls and women in the name of a higher power. While they have a faith program, and say "everything in Girl Scouting is based on the Girl Scout Promise and Law, which include many principles and values that are common across religion," it is the Muslim troops that get the press for sharing their religious faith and for creating exclusively Muslim Girl Scout troops.
It's a way to gain American cultural acquiescence to Islam while remaining segregated and not assimilating to that US culture. Many of the tenets of Islam specifically for girls appear to be in direct conflict with the reason Low founded the groups in the first place.
There are four special badges that can be earned for the Islamic faith. The Bismillah, In the Name of Allah, Quartua'in, and Muslimeen badges are on the list of faith badges. Each of them has booklets that go along with the badge and represent the performing of Islamic prayers and tasks. There are five other patches offered about Islamic prayer from The National Islamic Center, including one with a girl in full modesty dress.
One could say, religion is religion, troops that meet at houses of worship are the same as other troops that meet at houses of worship, and make an equivalency. But the foundation of the Muslim troops is to retain their Muslim segregation and to dispel concerns about Islam in broader American society while not integrating with that society.
The New York Times wrote that The Girl Scouts, as of 2007, "has become flexible in recent years about the old trappings associated with suburban, white, middle-class Christian scouting. Many troops have done away with traditions like saying grace before dinner at camp, and even the Girl Scout Promise can be retooled as needed."
But, they say, the Muslim troops always say their prayers, make sure their cuisine is halal, ensure that girls can wear their hijabs or be protected from public view when they are not, such as in swimming, uphold Ramadan fasting, and assure Muslim parents that the girls won't stray too far from their Islamic culture.
What makes the Muslim faith-based troops different than troops that are also faith-affiliated is that these troops reach out essentially to spread acquiescence to Islam, they use their troops to preserve Islamic tradition carved out from American life, and they participate in the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts in a segregated way. The Girl Scout mission is for girls to "develop strong values, leadership skills, social conscience, and conviction about their own potential and self-worth that will serve them all their lives."
The mission for the Muslim Girl Scouts is to "develop qualities such as strong Islamic values, social conscience, and conviction about their own potential and self-worth. They learn to be loyal, honest, considerate, caring, unselfish, courageous, cooperative, responsible, courteous, and respectful Muslim leaders following the steps of our Great role-model Sayyida Fatima Al-Zahraa." One mission focuses on the girl, the other focuses on adherence to a strict, oppressive faith.
Libby