Three Somali teenagers who won a Quran recitation contest have been rewarded with weapons and cash by the Islamist group Al-Shabaab, according to reports from Somalia.
The first-place winner was awarded an AK-47 rifle and $700, a report from RBC Radio said. Second place was worth an AK-47 and $500, and third place got two grenades and $400, RBC reported. Winners also received religious books.
The contest was organized by Al-Shabaab-controlled Radio Andalus, the report said.
At an awards ceremony in the Mogadishu neighborhood of Elasha, Al-Shabaab leaders urged the teenage winners to use their weapons.
“We want the children to fight for defending of their country and their religion ... just take these guns,” Sheikh Moktar Robow abu Mansur, a senior Al-Shabaab leader, is quoted as saying. That means battling the Somali government and African Union peacekeeping troops in the country, according to the RBC report.
Pictures of the event have been posted on the RBC website and on an Al-Shabaab-affiliated website.
Al-Shabaab is a radical al Qaeda-linked group challenging Somalia's central government, fighting an endless civil war, and forcing a strict form of Sharia law on local residents.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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I'm angry at Americans who pretend that they don't know about how Somalias oil comes here, rather than benifitting Somalian citizens. It reminds me of Oscar Schindler [most know for the movie "Shindlers List"] when he said that most Germans were well aware of the death camps, but were too afraid to say anything about it. Disgusting really.
.[Citation Needed]
When 'Fiction' becomes 'Truth' = Faith
...and I'm upset about how people laugh about it. That really disgusts me. There is no humor to be found anywhere in the history of Africas raypeing...from slaves to oil, even diamonds. Yet somehow we have some very sick individuals even here that thinks it's funny, till it happens to them @14.
[Citation Needed]
Repeats 'citation' even in her sleep.
Inflammatory Material. [Citation Needed] BS Alarm Going Off.
Chevy Citation? Who does that?
I find it sad that these so called "Sheikhs" are fighting and "defending" a religion that is not even native to their country!!!!
It is a shame to see brain less people using children , why not give them some grain to cultivate the soil , or a pen and a book. One day they will rise against you .
Ak's and grenades?...and I was given a mechanical lead pencil in fifth grade for reciting the Gettysburg address!...a blue one incidentally...
Ah, nighttalk, but can you still recite it?
Blue is pretty.
I was given 'Holy Cards'. I still have some.
Given what I know today, a gun might be better...
Markjuliansmith: lol
I am Somali,what happening to us is very strange,although my people blaming the others for this unhealthy life, I am person sees every thing happening is because some of us,I really don't know why they are doing what they do to their life,ours and our beautiful land,nevertheless i can lose my hope-Americans or whoever less they are human being and the cant harm us unless we give them the chance,so fool on you who ever believe that America is the cause of our foolishness
I was part of operation restore hope in somalia in 1993 and
Met many older somalis' that said the same as u just did, that it was once an educational hub with colleges untill the civil war, and that somalians did this to thiernown country
action action it is good or not ask for your selves .
No one cares if they kill each other . We get upset when they kill one of us.
I could see the same thing in the US with Bibles and rifles..even hating their government sounds like our right wingers
There is no limit to the vileness of islam.
Even 3rd place is the bomb.