RALEIGH, N.C. – A Raleigh teenager has went above and beyond in becoming an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America.
- Ameen Zafiruddin became an Eagle Scout this week
- He has earned 88 merit badges
- He is part of the only Muslim troop in the Triangle
A boy scout must earn 21 merit badges to become an Eagle Scout. Ameen Zafiruddin has earned 88 of them and became an Eagle Scout this week. However, he was hesitant when he started.
“I think it was kinda the outdoor activities like camping, hiking, just the different things we did that I had never done before that really got me into scouts,” Zafiruddin says. “Badges were just the icing on the cake.”
Zafiruddin is a part of Troop 373, the only Islamic troop in the Triangle. It is chartered with the Muslim American Society.
“So we try to integrate things like of course our scouting values into our Islamic values, and all of them are very similar when it comes to the scout oath and the scout law,” Zafiruddin says.
Zafiruddin’s brothers have joined the scouts. Recently, the scouts began allowing girls to join and the program has been rebranded to Scouts BSA.
Earlier this year, Zafiruddin’s sister became a scout.
“Before they accepted girls I always saw my brothers doing it, my mom was involved, my dad was involved, but when I got to going to the program like I got to see why he was so excited doing scouting in the first place,” Humairaa Zafiruddin says.
Ameen Zafiruddin turns 18 in January and will have to leave the scouts. However, there's still enough time for him to get a few more merit badges.
“You have to be resilient, you have to be determined because once you, you might run into different challenges, but you have to push through them or work through them. Just take it like one step at a time, right?” Zafiruddin says.