The last time I won a radio contest I was given tickets to some crappy concert nobody wanted to go and see however if I had been a child in Somali I could have potentially walked away with an AK-47 assault rifle.
A Somali radio station run by extremist group al-Shabab held a contest this weekend for children aged 10-17, each child was quizzed on Islam and al-Shabab and the winner and runner-up walked away with a treasure trove of money, al-Shabab books and the customary jewelry of choice in Somali an AK-47 to dangle from their necks.
Third place I have to admit got the shaft, they only received two live hand grenades.
Apparently the contest was a big deal with an entire awards ceremony taking place outside of Mogadishu.
In true Islamic extremist fervor Sheik Muktar Robow Abu Monsur of the al-Shabab sheiks lamented:
“Children should use one hand for education and the other for a gun to defend Islam.”
Al-Shabab is an offshoot of al-Qaeda and controls much of Somalia since the region has no central government.
Don’t be surprised if his “education” comment isn’t taken seriously, al-Qaeda members and regions they occupy are typically full of illiterate people who learn to fire a gun before they ever open a book while people in Somalia will never see the inside of a book.
So there you have it Somali radio stations are hard at work training the next group of Somali pirates and al-Qaeda operatives who will take over ships of innocent freight workers.
What do you think about the contest? Makes that last prize you won from a local radio station seem a bit lame does it.
