Lange Molensstraat
Lange Molensstraat
Lange Molensstraat
Lange Molensstraat
Gurdwara Guru Nanak Dev Ji
Lange Molensstraat 14
B-1800 Vilvoorde (Vlaams Brabant)
Vilvoorde Station – Sevadar Sahib
To see more Belgium (mostly Limburg) pictures :
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To see more Belgium and Netherlands gurdwara pictures :
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More Belgian pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue
Brussel Noord – New NMBS rolling stock
Vilvoorde – Stationstraat
Vilvoorde – Stationstraat
Vilvoorde – Stationstraat
Vilvoorde – Lange Molensstraat
To see more Belgium (mostly Limburg) pictures :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622046344528/
To see more Belgium and Netherlands public transport pictures :
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More Belgian pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue
16 February 2013
Sint-Gilles – City Hall / Stadhuis / Hotel de Ville
Vorst – Barrière MIVB Tram 81
Vorst – Wiels MIVB Tram 81
1 March 2013
Packing my belongings for move to Gingelom on 1st April
3 March 2013
Brussel Noord – New NMBS rolling stock
To see more Belgium (mostly Limburg) pictures :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622046344528/
To see more Belgium and Netherlands public transport pictures :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622685920411/
More Belgian pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue
3 February 2013
Southall
This is what was the old green building on the Green near the Southall station !
15 February 2013
To Brussel
NMBS train from Genk to take me to Brussel
Walking with Jean Bombois
16 February 2013
Vorst – Culte Antoiniste
Guillaume van Haelenlaan
Vorst – Culte Antoiniste
Guillaume van Haelenlaan
Vorst – Park
To see more Belgium (mostly Limburg) pictures :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622046344528/
To see more Belgium and Netherlands public transport pictures :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622685920411/
More Belgian pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue
Amritdhari Sikhs wearing their 5 Ks visit EU transport commissioner Siim Kallas
Discuss airport security, turbans and kirpans
Sikhs from different European countries took part
Bristol wala
The commissioner at the head of the table
The Sikhs arranged around him
Outside the Berlaymont Building
UK 25 January till 3 February
Ready for departure
To see more Belgium (mostly Limburg) pictures :
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More UK pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue
Many secondary ‘Free’ schools (mostly Roman Catholic) and Community (GO!) schools in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium have measures in place that ban religious symbols or the wearing of head-cover.
The result is a ban on the wearing of turban, patka, hijáb, yarmulk etc. Most primary schools either do not have this type of restrictions or do not implement them.
From the 1st of September of this year the GO! Schools are banning religious symbols from all primary and secondary schools under its jurisdiction.
The Sikh community in Belgium joined a front of 25 organisations formed by BOEH! (boss on your own head) and ‘Justice and Democracy’ to act against this blatant discrimination.
We will petition the Raad van State (Council of State) asking it to declare the ban unconstitutional and against the freedom of religion. Some previous rulings by this body give some hope. But we have learned from experience that going the legal way in this country is often costly and ineffective.
In this case we had not much choice as GO! seems no longer interested in dialogue. Because the BOEH! lawyers are very familiar with the subject and can use previous formats in this case, they decided to charge us 4000 Euro only. Although the Raad van State is slow and unpredictable we decided to take the chance.
The Sikhs have collected 1360 Euro so far, with 200 more promised. We are financially supported by two organisations that help the minorities, which means that the Sikhs only have to collect 1500 Euro. We have also two promises to finance any shortfall.
Why are the people in the Dutch (Nederlands) speaking part of Belgium so afraid of the religious symbols of minority religions ? As the northern Dutch speaking Belgians were themselves a discriminated group in the past you would hope that they would have sympathy for other minority groups.
The nationalist NVA party, which might get up to 40% of the vote in the 2014 elections in the Dutch (Nederlands) speaking region, indulges in negative rhetoric both about French speaking Belgians and about immigrants and descendents of immigrants.
The key-problem in this country is that there is no robust anti-discrimination legislation like we have in the UK. This combined with islamophobia and xenophobia leads to escape clauses like the ‘neutrality’ principle which allows companies and organisations to discriminate the wearers of religious symbols.
The message to the religious minorities is that we have to integrate, but also that we are not really welcome. This does not mean that all Belgians have this negative attitude, but those that do seem to have public opinion with them and other parties lack the courage to oppose the NVA.
Surjit Singh and Surinder Singh
Jasvir Kaur and the beautiful instruments
Surinder Singh, Jasvir Kaur and Surjit Singh
Tuning the instruments
Jasvir Kaur, Surinder Singh
I do not know the tabla man
Tabla wala, Jasvir Kaur, Surinder Singh, Surjit Singh
http://www.rajacademy.com/index.php
Gurdwara Guru Nanak Dev Ji
14 Lange Molensstraat
B-1800 Vilvoorde (near Brussel)
To see more Belgium and Netherlands gurdwara pictures :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622147381380/
More Belgian pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue
07 January 2013
Back in Belgium
Antwerpen Centraal – this train took me to Leuven for a connection to Sint-Truiden
Antwerpen Centraal – Dirty old train for the new line to the airport
Antwerpen Centraal – local service to Sint-Niklaas and Lokeren
Antwerpen Centraal – local service to Sint-Niklaas and Lokeren
Another ancient train, but this one better looking
20 January 2013
To Vilvoorde
Sint-Truiden station
Snow everywhere
To see more Belgium and Netherlands public transport pictures :
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More Belgian pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue
07 January 2013
Back in Belgium
Antwerpen Centraal Station – FYRA Hispeed to Brussel
Antwerpen Centraal Station – FYRA Hispeed to Brussel
Running on time !
Antwerpen Centraal Station – FYRA Hispeed to Brussel
Antwerpen Centraal Station
Antwerpen Centraal Station
To see more Belgium and Netherlands public transport pictures :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622685920411/
More Belgian pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue
The theme of the first demonstration was the position of women in Afghanistan
This demonstration focused on the position of children growing up in Belgium, if returned to Afghanistan
The demonstration was outside the ‘Raad van State’ which is like a Supreme Court, that ultimately decides on asylum applications when people appeal against decisions by lower courts
Like the earlier demonstration in Schaarbeek, Afghan Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims took part
Let us hope that the relevant authorities will listen
People of religious minorities, including Sufi and Shia Muslims, should not be returned to Afghanistan
Afghanistan, including Kabul, is not a safe place for anybody
There are already many internal refugees overcrowding cities like Kabul
Link to YouTube video report by
Pritpal Singh ‘The Dutch Sikh’
Two Dutch Sikhs at the demo :
Pritpal Singh, Sikh, Dutch national of Afghan background living in the UK
Harjinder Singh, Sikh, Dutch national of Dutch background living in Belgium
