This may look like “Rule 5 Friday” at first glance, but it’s way more important than that. Be sure to read the article too!

Daily Mail (UK): Belgian politician risks Muslim backlash after using teenage daughter dressed in burka and bikini for campaign against Islam

(h/t: Blazing Cat Fur)

By Rick Dewsbury
Last updated at 1:33 PM on 3rd February 2012

A Belgian politician has risked causing uproar among Muslims after starting a ‘Women Against Islamization’ campaign featuring his 19-year-old daughter wearing a burka and a bikini.

Filip Dewinter, leader of the far-right Vlaams Belang party, uses a shot of his daughter An-Sofie Dewinter in the dark blue bikini for the political campaign.

The glamorous teenager dons a burka that covers her head and face, while the rest of the Muslim garment is draped over her back.

The provocative image is likely to inflame tensions among Islamic groups and nationalists in the racially-divided country.

The poster shows the words ‘Freedom or Islam?’ written on a red bar across Ms Dewinter’s breasts.

Further down the poster a black panel with the words ‘You choose!’ is seen covering the teenager’s crotch.

The extremist Vlaams Belang party claims that it wants to convince women to take a stand against Islam.

Ms Dewinter told the Belgian press she does not feel used by the party.

She said: ‘I’ve suggested (the poster) myself, I have learned to live with it but I have had everything up to death threats made at me.’

She said that she ‘ wanted to make this statement.’

She added: ‘What is the greatest contrast with a niqab? Nude.

‘The campaign fits in perfectly with how I feel about the whole issue. As women, we must choose: freedom or Islam.’

The teenager claimed that she had been threatened by Muslim groups

She added: ‘Death threats and criticism no longer scare me off.’

Her father, the party’s leader, said: ‘Women are always the first victims of Islam. We want to make clear that they have a choice.’

The potentially incendiary poster comes after The Islamic fundamentalist group Shariah4Belgium was slammed for its aggressive stance.

The group opened the country’s first Sharia court, a putting it on a collision course with the country’s nationalists.

Vlaams Belang spoke out against the Muslim courts and said that all legal disputes should be settled in the country’s civil judicial system.

More here.

Let’s expose some of the “spin” in the Daily Mail article:

First of all, there’s this phrase in the article title: “…using teenage daughter in burka and bikini…” Filip Dewinter is not “using” his teenage daughter in this campaign. She suggested the poster; it is not unduly revealing; and, at 19, she is of age to make the decision to be photographed. As a young adult who grew up in a political family, she thoroughly understands and accepts the risks involved. Kudos to her for participating in the Women Against Islamization campaign.

“…likely to inflame tensions among Islamic groups and nationalists in the racially-divided country.” Yeah, we get it; if you object to the burqa or the niqab, you must be a raaaaacist. Belgium is divided in two different ways, neither of which have to do with race: by region (socialist French/Walloon versus conservative Flemish) and by ideology (Islam versus freedom). Islam is a totalitarian ideology; it is no more a “race” than communism is, and non-Muslims have the right to reject it.

“Filip Dewinter, leader of the far-right Vlaams Belang party…” Here we go again. Patriotism in western Europe has become a dirty word. Any European political party or organization that takes a stand for national sovereignty or against Islamic infiltration will be labeled as “far-right.” In the mainstream media, “far-right” is a code word for raaaaacist or neo-Nazi. This smear against conservatives is especially misleading in view of the fact that Hitler was a Marxist, always a man of the Left.

“The extremist Vlaams Belang party claims that it wants to convince women to take a stand against Islam.” Extremist is another code word that the mainstream media uses to make a person, group, or idea seem too far outside of the mainstream to be a respectable topic for discussion. On the one hand, jihadi violence is blamed on a “tiny minority of extremists” within Islam, rather than on mainstream Islamic doctrine set forth in the Qur’an, the hadiths, and the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. On the other hand, any party opposing Islamic expansionism is labeled extremist, as a ploy to make the reader feel secretly ashamed for agreeing with it.

More here:

• Filip Dewinter (Flemish language)
• Vlaams Belang (Flemish language)
• The Flemish Republic