Know your Koran, win a gun!

THE winners of a quiz organised by a bunch Somali Muslims have been given weapons and ammunition as prizes.

Prizes, according to the BBC, included AK-47 assault rifles, hand grenades and an anti-tank mine.

Armed Somali Islamists

The quiz ran during the “holy” Muslim month of Ramadan in the port city of Kismayo, and included questions about the Koran and Somali geography.

A representative for the al-Shabab militant group said the quiz aimed to stop young men from wasting their time and focus on defending their territory.

AFP news agency quoted al-Shabab’s Sheikh Abdullahi Alhaq as saying at yesterday’s prize-giving ceremony:

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.

The winning team, from the city’s Farjano district, reportedly won a rifle, two grenades, a landmine and office supplies worth $1,000 (£613).
But the runners-up did not go home empty-handed, taking away an AK-47 and bullets.

Al-Shabab and other Islamist rebels accused of having links to al-Qaeda dominate much of southern and central Somalia, where they have imposed strict Sharia law.

The country last had a functioning central government in 1991. A weak UN-backed government runs only parts of the capital, Mogadishu.

Here’s the Koran in a nutshell:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtePF8p-eIo[/youtube]