FREEDOM OR ISLAM
By David Vance On February 3rd, 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 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.
Thoughts? It seems to me that this is a perfectly reasonable, if colourful, way to have a debate on whether Islam is compatible with freedom.
It’s a burkini.
I think Muslims do have a point about some aspects of our culture, especially the sexual exploitation/stereotyping of women.
However,
I would never be prepared to give up the responsiveness and ability to redress balances within Western culture for the spasticity and vindictiveness of orthodox Islam.
…Which makes it so hard to understand why women’s groups, churches and even homosexual groups are not speaking out against the Islamification of our nation while they have the chance…
“A 2008 estimate found[130] that 6% of the Belgian population, about 628,751, is Muslim”
Roughly the same as the UK. But most of Belgium’s Muslims come from North Africa whereas most of Britain’s come from Pakistan. Which explains why jihadist terrorism is a much greater problem in Britain than it is in Belgium.
“I think Muslims do have a point about some aspects of our culture, especially the sexual exploitation/stereotyping of women”
Fair point Agi. When I first read the article my immediate reaction was how this ‘father’ could prostitute his “glamorous teenager” daughter in order to make a political point irrespective of how strongly he feels on the subject.