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For the past few days, right-wing conspiracy theorists have been furious with Girl Scouts of the USA because they learned that it was possible to earn rewards for visiting a mosque and learning about Islam. And just as you’d expect from a conservative outrage campaign, the buffoons spreading this information are falling for a bunch of lies spearheaded by someone who spreads them for a living and doesn’t know how to do basic research.
The backlash began when commentator and Steve Bannon’s podcast co-host Natalie Winters posted an “EXCLUSIVE” tweet claiming that this was all evidence of the “Islamization of Girl Scouts across America.” (People on the right insist a story is “exclusive” whenever they first learn about it even if the information is really old.)
The rest of the thread was just as overblown, saying that “Mosque-based programs [across the country were] embedding prayer, hijab rules, Ramadan, Islamic education and mosque outreach into Girl Scouting.”
Except the patches and medals weren’t made by the official Girl Scouts organization.
While the Girl Scouts has a program in place (“My Promise, My Faith”) to reward girls who learn about faith in a generic way, they don’t do anything to promote any particular belief system. (That’s in stark contrast to Scouting America, a.k.a. the Boy Scouts of America, where faith is imposed upon everyone.)
The bottom line is that the Girl Scouts are secular and these programs are purely optional.
What they do allow, however, is for third parties to offer patches to girls who achieve the goals of those outside groups. When those groups are religious, you might see patches awarded for religious reasons. This is so commonplace that there’s an entire Wikipedia page explaining which religious groups give out their own “rewards” to Girl Scouts. (This image just goes through the letter “C.”)
Here’s the thinking: The Girl Scouts, as a group, know there are a lot of faith-based organizations who want to participate in scouting, so this program gives girls a chance to see how their religious values overlap with the group’s mission. In the case that has conservatives all riled up, the Islamic Committee on Girl Scouting gives out their own awards for girls from Muslim families.
That’s why the pictures posted by Winters were from that group and can’t be found anywhere on the Girl Scouts’ official website.
All of this is innocuous. None of this is proof that the Girl Scouts of the USA is promoting any particular religion. It’s a way for girls from Muslim families to be rewarded for learning about the faith under the umbrella of scouting and for sharing basic information about their faith with people outside their community. (Because learning about different religions is a good thing.)
But people on the right hate education. So they’re claiming this is indoctrination. And the usual gang of the Dumbest People on the Internet began circulating the lies:
Again, the Girl Scouts are not rewarding girls for becoming Muslim. There are no official “Muslim badges.” You don’t get bonus points from the parent organization for wearing a hijab.
A Girl Scouts USA spokesperson sent me this statement in response to the misinformation being spread by right-wing liars:
Girl Scouts is proudly for every girl. Contrary to misinformation circulating online today, Girl Scouts is not a religious organization and does not teach religion. For more than a century, we’ve welcomed girls of every faith and background. Our national My Promise, My Faith pin invites girls to connect the Girl Scout Law with their own faith. Any other faith-based patches are developed by independent faith organizations, not GSUSA, and participation in these programs is always optional.
They issued the same statement separately on social media:
Naturally, the right-wing liars didn’t take it well. Winters doubled-down on her own stupidity: “This is modern feminism’s pathetic endpoint: Girl Scouts defending Islam’s incorporation into its programs—as Islamist regimes treat women as second-class citizens and stone them to death.”
Besides falsely equating the despicable acts of Islamic extremists with peaceful Muslims, she ignored the fact that the Girl Scouts is pretty damn open about saying religious groups can develop their own internal programs. They’re not interested in cherry-picking which religions are acceptable or not. None of this is exclusive to Muslims.
Maybe the funniest response came from the Washington Stand’s Joshua Arnold, who explained the (fake) controversy and the Girl Scouts’ response to everything… and still managed to come to the wrong conclusion (because his outlet isn’t interested in being honest with readers):
… the Girl Scouts’ approval of Muslim practice seems to go far beyond any favor it ever bestowed on Christianity. Did the Girl Scouts ever offer a badge for Christian evangelism? It appears that wokeness has once again led an organization into religious favoritism for Islam in the name of “diversity.”
…
Nevertheless, the fact remains that the Girl Scouts approved the Muslim faith patches, thus allowing a very Islamic brand of scouting to advance under its auspices. At the very least, this seems to suggest a type of favor not shown to other religions.
All of that is bullshit. There are, in fact, badges that Christian groups give out and it’s not hard to find them. This is apparently the level of research you get from a “senior writer” at that conservative outlet.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, issued a statement in response to the faux outrage:
In an emailed statement to Newsweek Robert S. McCaw, director of Government Affairs Department for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said, "Those seeking to manufacture outrage over Muslim girls and boys participating in scouting programs are not looking out for children but advancing an ideological agenda, using Muslim youth as fodder for sensationalism, clickbait, and the anti-Muslim hysteria that continues to plague public discourse in our nation."
Perfectly put.
Anyway, most of these conservatives are going to keep being angry over nothing, at least until next year when they have a chance to buy more boxes of Thin Mints and jump on it, because their brains are smooth and porous and they’re going to forget the entire incident by this time next week.
Christians are the absolute LAST people on Earth to be squawking about "indoctrination."
Let them remove the boulders from their own eyes.
Meanwhile conservatives push repealing woman's suffrage, attack women's sports, and let women die in their states for religious reasons.
Fuck them.