No luxury cruise but a ticket to jihad was the prize for the winners of a team quiz organized by Somalia’s insurgent Shebab group during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
“The reason the young men were rewarded with weapons is to encourage them to participate in the ongoing holy war against the enemies of Allah in Somalia,” Sheikh Abdullahi Alhaq said at a ceremony late on Friday.
The radio-broadcast quiz organized by the al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab organization in the southern Somali city of Kismayo lasted throughout Ramadan, which ended last month. Five neighborhoods of the port city entered the competition, which consisted mainly of questions on science, culture and the Koran.
The winners — a team from Farjano district — were given a first prize consisting of one AK-47 assault rifle, two hand grenades, an anti-tank landmine and office supplies at a ceremony attended by hundreds of residents.
“The team in the first place gets the weapons and office equipment worth upward of US$1,000,” Sheikh Abdullahi Alhaq said, sparking cheers and applause in the crowd.
“It was a wonderful event because I have never seen students being rewarded with weapons as a result of an education competition,” said Mohamed Hersi, a Kismayo trader who attended the ceremony.
The Shebab and an alliance of local Islamist factions seized control of Kismayo — one of the country’s main ports — more than a year ago and imposed a strict form of Shariah, banning sports, DVDs and Western clothes.
The quiz show’s runners-up had to settle for an AK-47 and ammunition.
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