BELGIUM: BAGHEAD BOUNTY!

Increasingly popular, Belgium’s ‘Vlaams Belang’ right-wing party is offering 250 euros ($310) to anyone who reports a veiled Muslim woman to police.

Translation: WANTED!

  Vlaams Belang political party made the 250 euros offer today in the wake of face veil riots in Brussels. Filip Dewinter, a senior figure within the right-wing party, told Reuters the riots had made police apprehensive about enforcing the burqa ban.

He claimed that the payment should put pressure on authorities to further enforce it. Mr Dewinter said: ‘It’s a textile prison for the women who have to live under it.’

The anti-immigration nationalist party’s stunt great idea follows protesters hurling bins and metal barriers at a Brussels police station last week. The riot broke out after a Muslim woman was arrested for refusing to remove her face veil, or niqab.

A Brussels police spokesman said he was unaware of the money being offered. But added that any officer who sees a woman wearing a niqab would issue a penalty. He said: ‘When someone is breaking the law we always have to intervene, demonstrations or no, the niqab is prohibited.’

Women in Belgium risk a maximum fine of 150 euros (£120) if they wear a full face veil in public. Mr Dewinter said he was not aware how many people had already responded to the offer of a bounty.

A spokeswoman for Belgium’s federal police said the legality of the bounty was a question for the judiciary, but if someone felt insulted by it they could file a complaint with the police. Police in Belgium are investigating last week’s riots and arrested 13 members of the Islamist group Sharia4Belgium on Sunday, the police spokesman said.