Islamic Child Soldiers and Sharia Law Amputations

Islamist Child Soldiers

Two young fighters recite Koranic verses for a journalist, at the request of their Islamist commanders, in Douentza, Mali, late last month. Across northern Mali, Islamists have recruited and paid for as many as 1,000 children from poverty-stricken rural towns and villages, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. Interviews provide evidence that a new generation in what was long a moderate and stable Muslim nation is becoming radicalized. (The Associated Press)

Insane Islamists recruit child soldiers

• Poor children are paid to spread terror and help conquer the rest of Mali.
• Some unidentified party is providing the hard cash to bankroll the Islamists.

From the Washington Times  -  Across northern Mali, Islamic terrorists have plucked and paid for as many as 1,000 children from rural towns and villages devastated by poverty and hunger, the Associated Press has found in several dozen interviews with residents, human rights officials, four youths and an Islamist official.

The AP also saw several other children with machine guns half their size strolling down the streets in Timbuktu, where Westerners can no longer go because of the threat of kidnappings. The interviews shed new light on the recruitment practices of the Islamists, including firsthand accounts of how much money is being offered to poor youths and their families to join.

They also provide evidence that a new generation in what was long a moderate and stable Muslim nation is becoming radicalized, as the Islamists gather forces to fight a potential military intervention backed by the United Nations.


Sharia Law amputations in Mali  
Alleged thieves and criminals have had their hands and feet amputated.

Report from the Times  -  Salif Haidara sat drinking tea on the side of the road with other weary bus passengers when a man with a turban and a long beard approached them and asked if they wanted to become holy warriors?

The skinny teen had left his poor hometown in the desert with only the yellow tank top, pants and plastic flip-flops he was wearing.

Now Salif was being told he could earn $30 a day for himself and $400 a month for his family — an enormous sum for a boy who had just turned 16.

A car was waiting to take the recruits to a two-week-long training camp in Mali’s vast desert, where they would learn how to fire weapons.

But the man, named Omar, made one thing clear.

“Once you’ve taken the money and eaten, it’s a done deal,” recalled Salif, his troubled face still free of stubble after four days and nights on the bus. “You’re there until you die, or the war is over.”


Read more:   Islamists in Mali paying for child soldiers - Washington Times


Islamic Militants Whip Couples For Showing Affection in Public

Young fighters, including 13-year-old Abdullahi (right) and 14-year-old Hamadi (second right), display their Quranic studies notes for a journalist as their Islamist commanders watch in Douentza, Mali, on Sept. 27, 2012. (Associated Press)

Fighters from Islamist group Ansar Dine stand guard during a hostage handover in the desert outside Timbuktu, Mali. Allied Islamist groups Ansar Dine and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO, are applying strict Shariah justice across the northern half of Mali, which fell to the al-Qaeda-linked rebels. (Associated Press)

Islamists Amputate Limbs as Punishment


Report from the Washington Times  -  Ibrahim Toure said he was talking with friends near the public square in Gao, some 750 miles northeast of Bamako, when the Islamists drove up and ordered people to gather around.

“We understood that they were going to carry out a Shariah punishment, but we could not have imagined what was about to happen,” Mr. Toure said.

The crowd tried to enter the square, but the militants stopped them.

“The Islamists told us to go outside the square, and to stay behind the iron bars that encircle it. It was then that we started to really worry, because normally when they whip people, they let us inside. So we realized that something even more horrible was about to happen.”

Mr. Toure and his friends watched as the terrorists brought out a chair and tied its legs and back with a rope to a pillar on a stage inside Independence Square. Then the long-bearded “cadi,” or Islamic judge, arrived and gave a sermon, saying that within the territory the Islamic militants control, Shariah law would be applied.



The Insane Islamists have taken over the part of Mali in red.

“He said that for highway robbers, Shariah calls for the right hand and left foot to be cut off, and that four people had already had their limbs cut off. And immediately a small child came running out of one of the cars with a bag. We saw that it was dripping with blood,” said Mr. Toure.

The judge said the chopped off hands and feet of four of the accused were inside the bag. The fifth man’s limbs would be amputated in public in order to serve as a lesson.

The militants then brought the young accused robber out of the car and pushed him toward the chair.
“It was unbelievable. The young man, he just followed calmly,” said Mr. Toure. “He had his eyes closed with a bandage. He put out his hand to be cut, then he put out his foot to be cut. He didn’t cry out. He didn’t even move. It’s my impression that they must have drugged him — if not how can you accept to let someone cut off your limbs?”


Read more: Mali rebels punish with whip, amputation - Washington Times