Muslim American Society Used Scouts In 2006 Political Campaigns

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The website of the Investigative Project (IP), a group which monitors Islamic extremism, has reported on a the use by the Muslim American Society of Boy and Girl Scout troops in political campaigns last year:

Seeking to flip a Republican Senate seat, the Muslim American Society used Boy and Girl Scout troops last year as part of a massive get-out-the-vote campaign targeting Muslim voters in Virginia and elsewhere….MAS Executive Director Mahdi Bray isn’t keeping the fact that he tapped Scouts to run phone banks a secret. In fact, he’s bragging about it. And while he claims the calls were non-partisan, he also is comfortable saying “Democrats would be a better choice” for his constituency….Bray openly described the scouting program last November in a release posted on the MAS website. “MAS Dialing for Muslim Votes” described how the organization was using a Muslim Voters Database to target calls nationally and encouraged people to vote on November 7, 2006.”The MAS CEE (MAS Center for Electoral Empowerment) phone banks are being operated by MAS Youth, chapter members and volunteers. Even MAS Boy and Girl Scout Troops are making calls,” the release said.”Through our MAS Youth department, Boys and Girls Scout Troops, we are training an upcoming generation that will be spiritually grounded and political (sic) savvy”…MAS claimed these were national efforts, with MAS Scouts performing similar work in other states, including Tennessee. On Election Day, a MAS release said its troops in Nashville “ran two campaigns of calling on Muslims in Tennessee to go and vote for today’s elections.”

According to the IP report, the program also had partisan preferences:

[Mahdi Bray] claimed the effort was non-partisan and said Muslims need to be flexible. But: “What I’m saying is that we realize, based on the analysis that the Muslims, the taskforce had come up with, that indeed that it would be better in terms of civil rights ‘“ who will be chairing certain important committees that raises civil liberties and like that, that in this case ‘“ the Democrats would be a better choice.”

Commenting on the program, Bray also stated:

In getting young people to become politically active, Bray added, “In the years to come, you ain’t seen nothing yet…I’m a strong advocate for young people being groomed to be civically involved so that they can run the office. They have a legacy and they have the right to lead America. But they have to be groomed for it. And you prepare them for the political process.”

The Muslim American Society is a less well-known part of the Muslim Brotherhood network in the U.S. that first came to national attention when the Chicago Tribune did a feature story on the group in September 2004. According to the IP report, reaction by Scout officials to the program was mixed, expressing both approval and disapproval.

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