Al-Qaeda Targets Children Through Video Games

 

Al-Qaeda Targets Children Through Video Games

http://www.eurasiareview.com/15042013-al-qaeda-targets-children-through-video-games/

 

By Magharebia -- (April 15, 2013)

 

By Jemal Oumar

 

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is changing its strategy to target

children at an early age to lure them to its radical ideology.

 

To do this, the group is using new methods deemed to be more capable of

attracting children's attention such as video games that include a clear

strategy to show the group's ability to win wars against international

forces.

 

On March 26th, telquel-online.com published a picture from a jihadist forum

showing a video game designed by AQIM.

 

The game has a military aircraft carrying AQIM's black flag while hitting

and destroying French aircraft in the Sahara where battles are raging

against the terrorists in northern Mali.

 

The website said that the game, "Muslim Mali", displays the message

"Congratulations, you have become martyrs!" in lieu of "Game Over" when a

player loses all their lives.

 

Journalist Abi Ould Zidan visited Timbuktu while the radical groups were

controlling it last year.

 

"Children usually represent significant numbers of recruits at training

camps in Timbuktu," he told Magharebia.

 

Citing Ansar al-Din spokesperson Sanad Ould Bouamama, he added that the

group justified the recruitment of children based on a certain religious

interpretation of some hadiths.

 

However, the exploitation of children by jihadists did not surprise many

after adolescents were recently arrested in Ifoghas Mountains.

 

In addition, a Mauritanian adolescent was killed in the In Amenas operation

in southern Algeria. Later information about him showed that he joined

al-Qaeda years before his death.

 

Since al-Qaeda was keen on exploiting all means of communication in order to

attract the biggest possible number of sympathisers, it created an account

on Twitter to post its statements and tweets.

 

The AQIM Twitter account on March 24th threatened to kill the French

hostages it still held in order to inflame the feelings of hostages'

families, AFP cited a website specialising in monitoring Islamist groups as

saying.

 

"Although al-Qaeda usually uses the internet. to pass on its speech and

express its opinions and positions, it is also certainly using social

networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter because it realises that

children have a presence on these websites," Mauritanian researcher Bechir

Ould Mohamed said.

 

"Families in Maghreb countries must be keen not to allow their children

absolutely free access to social networking websites to prevent them from

falling into the trap of the propaganda of jihadist groups," he added. "Most

young members of jihadist groups joined when they were adolescents unaware

of the risks."

 

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