A Sikh man has taught his local mayor in Canada how to tie a turban and dance bhangra – and the video of the process has gone viral with more than a million views.

Gurdeep Pandher suggested the idea to the mayor of the City of Whitehorse, Yukon, Dan Curtis, who described it as the “coolest thing he’d ever been asked to do”.

As well as seeing the mayor dance, the video also serves as a tutorial on how to tie a Sikh turban as the complete video shows the process from beginning to end.

“It shows we can still connect people from other communities and cultures and build bridges with each other,” Pandher told Reuters, when asked about his inspiration for making the video.

The purported leader of Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau appeared in a video posted on social media on Sunday in which he rejected statements by the country’s military that he had been seriously wounded.

In recent years, the Nigerian military has said it has killed or critically wounded Shekau on multiple occasions, often swiftly followed by video denials by someone who says he is Shekau. Last month Nigeria’s air force said it had killed senior Boko Haram members and that Shekau had been wounded.

While the ensuing videos all show someone sporting Shekau’s distinctive beard, the grainy quality of the footage means it is not always possible to confirm if the person is the same as in the previous videos.

“You broadcast the news and published it in your media outlets that you injured me and killed me and here I am,” said a man purporting to be Shekau in a video addressed to “tyrants of Nigeria in particular and the west of Africa in general”.

“I will not get killed until my time comes,” he added in the 40-minute video posted on YouTube and delivered in Arabic and Hausa, which is spoken widely in northern Nigeria.

A statement issued by army spokesman Sani Usman said the footage showed that the man purporting to be Shekau was “unstable” and came as “another sign that the end is near for him”.

“Boko Haram terrorism as it was known, is gone for good. We are just counting down to the day when all the few remnants will be totally wiped out or brought to justice,” he said.

The statement did not explicitly say whether the army considered the man in the video to be Shekau.

Last month’s announcement by the air force came days after Islamic State, to whom Boko Haram pledged allegiance last year, announced the appointment of a new leader of the West African group in an apparent rejection of Shekau.

That appointment was later dismissed in a 10-minute audio clip on social media by a man purporting to be Shekau, exposing divisions within the jihadist group that has plagued Nigeria and neighbours Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

Boko Haram has killed about 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million in a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating a state adhering to strict Islamic laws.

It controlled a swathe of land in northeast Nigeria around the size of Belgium at the end of 2014 but was pushed out by Nigerian troops, aided by soldiers from neighbouring countries, early last year.

In a sign the group remains capable of inflicting damage, Usman said four Nigerian soldiers were killed and 16 others were injured on Sunday when they were ambushed by Boko Haram fighters during a patrol in the northeastern state of Borno. He said three militants were killed.

It comes hours after two security sources told Reuters in Chad that suspected militants killed four Chadian troops and wounded six overnight in an attack near the town of Kaiga.

They added that seven of the Islamist militants had been killed in return fire.

Another video has surfaced showing anti-Muslim bigotry on what seems to be, a train to Bushey. The abuse is clearly anti-Muslim in nature though the perpetrator seems somewhat unstable and either seems to be intoxicated or may have other issues related to his well-being. The video has some explicit language on it and we would urge listeners to be aware of this.

It is the nature of the words that consistently are used. ‘Terrorist‘ and ‘bomber‘ are terms that the perpetrator uses and what is also sad, is that people can be heard laughing at the behaviour of the individual.

This is another in a line of shocking videos that have surfaced, though this case may involve someone who may be vulnerable themselves. It does however underline the abuse and rhetoric that comes from individuals when they see people that they perceive to be Muslims.

We would urge anyone who suffers anti-Muslim prejudice to get in touch with us. You can contact us on 0800 456 1226 or info@tellmamauk.org. Alternatively, you can tweet us on @tellmamauk or SMS us on 0115 707 0007.

Credit for picture to ‘AidforAids’ and video-credit for video to @doam

The post Anti-Muslim Abuse on Train to Bushey, Though Perpetrator May Have Issues appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri has released a video message urging young Muslim men to attack targets in the United States and in Western nations. The video seems to have been made within the last two months and could be a way of diverting the growing rift between IS and Al Qaeda which has seen open reposts by both groups towards the leadership of each.

Zawahiri said, “I call on all Muslims who can harm the countries of the crusader coalition not to hesitate. We must now focus on moving the war to the heart of the homes and cities of the crusader West and specifically America.” The audio was posted online today and hinted that Muslim youth should follow the actions of the Tsarnaev and Kouachi brothers and whose actions caused shock and revulsion globally.

There has been a growing tension between Al Qaeda and IS, particularly since many Al Qaeda fighters have defected and joined groups whose allegiance (or bayat) has been to Al-Baghdadi. Furthermore, over the last 2 weeks supporters of Al-Baghdadi have consistently undermined the religious claim to leadership of Al-Zawahiri, which probably has led to why this video has been released. In it, Zawahiri reiterates his position on the IS regarding the group’s claim of leading the Caliphate as being illegitimate.