Somali teens earn guns in Quran recitation contest
Somali children play with toy guns in Mogadishu last month.
September 20th, 2011
11:25 AM ET

Somali teens earn guns in Quran recitation contest

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.

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Filed under: Somalia
soundoff (180 Responses)
  1. LOLMUSLIM

    lawl silly moooslims, In related news three mooslim kids found dead with gunshot wounds and grenade burns. When asked about mooslims being anti violence muhammad said violence only to be used against women.

    October 5, 2011 at 9:47 pm | Report abuse |
  2. Jerkweed

    The Al-Shabaab lunatics evidently were in too much of a hurry to show that kid on the left how to at least hold the stupid thing. When that little delinquent finally gets his mitts on and fires a real gun, he's going to be noseless and toothless. Score one for the African Union forces.

    October 6, 2011 at 9:59 pm | Report abuse |
  3. Tram

    I tell my teen & her friends to send chain spam to me when they get them . I have no qmuals about using the big finger of delete Frac is right that they do get worried about will happen if they don't pass them on.. so this is a soluion for them

    August 9, 2012 at 5:20 pm | Report abuse |
  4. Jorge

    Your website is great! You told in History and Making of Masjid Nabvi | AmAzE sTuFf . some trues, but i must agree, you can more.

    August 9, 2012 at 7:41 pm | Report abuse |
  5. JEsus

    hajis gonna haj!

    August 9, 2012 at 8:06 pm | Report abuse |
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