Must-read selection

Rarely I write about sports, but this article is amusing to read: Explaining the Crazy Dutch Love of Speed Skating.

The Italian clown Silvio Berlusconi shows his "pretty" face again: Silvio Berlusconi has said that while illegal immigrants were not welcome in Italy he would make an exception for "beautiful girls".

Saudi Arabia hates Valentine's Day. Ok. We get it. AlArabiya has an article about how the festivity is (or is not) celebrated in other parts of the muslim world. Celebrated or not, a look into the past reveals the following: Valentines in Ancient Rome Were All About Pain

Dutch population is not so interested in religion anymore...

The Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics notes today that less people visit church or mosque. Among Muslims the drop is highest. While in 1998/1999 about half of the Muslim population visited a mosque once a month, the average of those visiting the mosque in 2004-2008 is a bit more than a third. Catholics follow the muslims in their drop with 3 on 10 people visiting the church once a month (1998/1999) against 2 on 10 in 2004-2008.

58 percent of the people older than 18 calls him/herself connected to a religious group (those being asked could choose between "none, Catholic, Dutch Reformed, Reformed, Protestant Church Netherlands, Islam, other"). Fifty percent of those connected to a religious group considers him/herself catholic; 19 percent some kind of protestantism. Five percent of the total population is Islamic, which is about 825 thousand people. Of which 95% has a non-western background. Most of the Muslims are Moroccans, followed by Turks.

Source: CBS

Poet masks Israeli ID to win Arab prize

One name sticks out from the list of winners in the prestigious El Hizjra poetry competition intended for Dutch Arabs, which was announced last week -Tuvit Shlomi, press officer for Holland's largest Zionist group.
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Although the competition is intended for Arabs, it is open to anyone. Past winners include renowned Dutch authors such as Abdelkader Benali, Mohammed Benzakour, and Rashid Novaire.
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She is the daughter of a Jewish-Dutch mother and an Israeli father who immigrated to Holland. Her parents met in Israel after her mother immigrated here. The couple then moved to Holland to study and ended up staying. "Winning the competition is an opportunity for me to show that I'ma rooted in the Middle East just as much as the other applicants. That Israel is for me what Morocco is for them," said Shlomi, who had lived in Israel for a year, frequently visits the country and speaks fluent Hebrew.
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The pseudonym which Shlomi selected was Wallada bint al-Mustaqfi, an opinionated 11th century Arab-Andalucian poetess and proto-feminist who spurned the hijab, kept multiple lovers and embroidered fragments of her poetry onto her clothes. "Her message is something well-worth remembering, especially today," Shlomi said.

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