OPINION:
Islam has infiltrated yet another American institution: Girl Scouts of the USA.
While Islamic communities around the world regularly treat women as second-class citizens, the Girl Scouts — whose guiding ethos is to empower women — are working to normalize Islam in America.
A recent investigation found an insidious pattern of mosque-based troops promoting Islam in activities under the Girl Scouts’ banner.
Programs nationwide — including in Sacramento and San Diego, California; Brooklyn, New York; and Virginia and Maryland — are incorporating Islamic education into their troop curricula, thanks in part to the National Islamic Committee on Girl Scouting.
The Islamic committee has developed numerous badges to encourage Muslim girls to deepen their faith.
The All About Islam patch is earned after completing the Five Pillars of Islam. The especially devout Girl Scouts can strive for the Girl Scout of the Islamic Faith award, which is earned after completing a four-medal Islamic recognition system.
Patches are also awarded for learning about Hajj (the required Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca) and for attending jumma (the Friday congregational prayer).
More insidious are the badges awarded for promoting Islam to non-Muslim community members. Girls can receive the Share Ramadan with a Friend patch for bringing a non-Muslim friend to a mosque and sharing an iftar meal with her. Although these awards were created by the National Islamic Committee on Girl Scouting, they have been rubber-stamped by the Girl Scouts of the USA.
Many of these troops also host regular events open to outsiders that are meant to normalize Islamic practices and beliefs.
A February 2025 event hosted by the SALAM Islamic Center in Sacramento and organized by one of the local Girl Scout troops featured a hijab photo booth, “where girls had the opportunity to try on hijabs and explore the significance of modesty,” according to SALAM’s website.
The event also had a booth on Palestine, “fostering awareness and empathy.” Girl Scouts of the Nation’s Capital hosts annual Ramadan Lock-ins, and Orange County, California, troops hosted an Open Mosque Day, which included a mosque tour and presentations connecting Islam to the Girl Scout Promise and Law.
Founded in 1912, before women in America had the right to vote, Girl Scouts of the USA has always been about empowering women, encouraging them to embrace their unique strengths and create their own opportunities.
Although the Girl Scouts is a secular organization, it believes the principles in the Girl Scout Promise and Law are compatible across many religions and encourages girls to incorporate Girl Scout activities into their faith journeys.
When it comes to the equal and fair treatment of women, however, the Girl Scouts’ founding ethos does not hold that all religions are equal. One needs only to look at any of the more than 50 countries where Islam is the majority religion to see a clear distinction.
Iran famously requires women to cover themselves modestly and to wear a hijab whenever they are in public. Iran’s “morality police” ruthlessly enforces these rules, which resulted in the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in 2022.
In Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, women do not have equality with men under the law. Instead, legal authority is granted to husbands and fathers. Violence is criminalized within marriage only if it causes severe and visible physical injuries. Women are banned from receiving education past grade six or from seeking employment in most industries.
Unsurprisingly, women are completely excluded from politics.
Although many brush off Iran and Afghanistan as extreme brands of Islamic law, even the seemingly moderate Islamic countries fail to protect women. As Turkey increasingly moves from the more liberal days of Ataturk back to traditional Islamic rule, violence against women is increasing.
Human Rights Watch reports that nearly 40% of women in Turkey have suffered physical and/or sexual violence in their lives.
Although Persian Gulf states have been praised for their modernization (for example, Saudi Arabia was celebrated in 2018 for allowing women to get driver’s licenses), the rights they have granted women in recent years are hardly on par with the freedoms women enjoy in America.
Women in the Gulf still face intense cultural barriers. Family courts still overwhelmingly favor men, and women still face discrimination in many industries and sectors of life.
Granting women equal rights in any of these countries remains an uphill battle because doing so is antithetical to Islam itself. The Quran and subsequent Islamic texts teach that there is a hierarchy of men over women.
Faithful adherence to Islam is not compatible with the goals of the Girl Scouts of the USA.
The Girl Scouts was founded to empower girls to become strong, capable women in any segment of life that they choose. Concerned Women for America has already cataloged how radical feminism has taken over the organization’s ranks so that abortion and gender ideology are promoted at every turn.
We can add to our concerns what is perhaps the richest irony of all: The Girl Scouts is now awarding badges for the religion that does not even allow women to show their hair.
• Maggie McKneely is director of government relations for Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization. On X: @CWforA
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