Scouts appeal for Muslim leaders

The scouts have launched an urgent recruitment drive targeted at Britain's Muslim community.

The move is an attempt to plug a shortfall in group leaders as the number of young people applying to be Scouts continues to rise. There are 33,500 people on the organisation's waiting list, and the number is rapidly growing.

The Scout Association will work alongside the Muslim-led charity Mosaic in an attempt to forge closer relationships with Muslim leaders and encourage them to push the benefits of volunteering within their local communities.

There are 29 Scout groups in the UK with a predominantly Muslim membership, but this will be the first time that the association has formed a partnership with a community charity.

The campaign, which was launched yesterday at the Royal Commonwealth Society in London, comes at a time of great growth for the organisation. Last month, it announced that the number of Scouts in the UK had increased by 16,500 since the start of 2009, the fastest growth in 38 years. Membership has now risen for five years in a row, taking total levels to almost 500,000.