An image of a six-year-old Beaver scout who remained standing during an Islamic prayer has gone viral. The action, filmed during a youth trip to the Central Scotland Islamic Centre in Stirling, Scotland, has been widely shared on social media.
Whereas Muslims pray five times daily while facing their holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, a group of Beavers—part of an affiliate programme of the Scout Association aimed at boys and girls ages six to eight—was encouraged to take part in the ritual as part of earning their “Faith Activity Badge.”
Alongside a representative of the Islamic Centre, the scout leader and his young charges are shown prostrating themselves before Allah, although one little lad clearly refused to do so. At the time of writing, a six-second video clip shared on X by Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) has gained more than 1.7 million views. Multiple other still images, sometimes digitally manipulated for comedic or political effect, are in widespread circulation.
The incident further highlights the growing concern that Great Britain is drifting into treating Islam differently from other faiths, a point the recent Unite the Kingdom march and rally sought to emphasise.
