16/09/2022

NI's First Dedicated Muslin Scout Group To Be Established

Northern Ireland's first dedicated Muslim Scout group is to hold an event to attract new members on Saturday 17 September.

Scouts NI has announced the establishment of the new 117th Belfast Islamic Centre Scout Group, joining more than 70 Muslin Scout groups that already exist across the UK.

Some 12,000 people are members of Scouts NI, making it one of the largest youth organisations in Northern Ireland.

The new group will allow the scouting movement to continue to grow in NI, chief commissioner of Scouts NI, Stephen Donaldson, said.

Speaking to BBC New NI, Mr Donaldson said: "We're looking to areas where we haven't been so much in evidence in the past.

"With my role being a national role and being across in England quite a lot, I got to know about the Muslim Scout fellowship.

"That was the motivation for us to get it started in Northern Ireland.

"We kind of thought that there's a community there that probably needs us as much as we need them.

"To get people involved in scouting you need to be in their community, so that's very much our way of looking at this in Northern Ireland as well."

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