'Islamic rape of Europe': Polish magazine sparks outrage

Under a headline reading "Islamic rape of Europe," the latest wSieci ("Online") magazine cover portrays a distressed white, blonde-haired woman draped in the flag of the European Union as she's assaulted by several disembodied dark-skinned men.

Beyond its radical cover image, this week's issue is devoted to articles outlining the rape and sexual assault of European women said to have been carried out by migrant men. It contains articles such as "The hell of Europe," which addresses the attacks that occurred in the German city of Cologne on New Year's Eve, as well as another article entitled "Does Europe want to commit suicide?"

The magazine's website also promotes the glossy as containing "a report about what the media and Brussels elite are hiding from citizens of the European Union."

Political incorrectness of a new scale

Widespread global criticism of the cover and the magazine's contents has caused some to liken the publication to Hitler's Nazi German or Mussolini's Italian fascist propaganda.

Media expert Henk van Ess told DW he considers the cover image to be "fear-mongering, feeding … the primary fear that the way we live is endangered."

"In reality," he said, "we should fear our own 'rapers' - up to now, more 'European' people [have been] responsible for raping Europeans than Islamic people."

Van Ess added that Monday's edition in no way leads to an opening the public debate about refugees.

"The Polish magazine just targets [the refugees] as evil and helps racist people insist on their beliefs."

Others on social media disagree, saying such content will bring about debate. Some described wSieci's publication as courageous.

Social media has also pointed out that the German magazine Focus showed a naked white woman covered in black handprints in its January edition. That headline read:

"Women complain of sex attacks from migrants: are we tolerant or blind?"

'Things going wrong'

wSieci has not responded to DW's request for an interview. The cover editorial, written in Polish by Aleksandra Rybinska, reads as follows:

"After the events of New Year's Eve in Cologne, the people of old Europe painfully realized the problems arising from the massive influx of immigrants. The first signs things were going wrong, however, were there a lot earlier. But their significance was ignored or was minimized in the name of tolerance and political correctness."

On New Year's Eve, in the German city of Cologne, scores of men reportedly molested, and in three cases raped, a number of women passing thorough the city's main square between the train station and the famous cathedral.

Most of the attackers accused of the 446 allegations of sexual assault and rape in the Cologne attacks have been described as being of Arab or North African origin.

The editorial goes on to accuse German authorities of allowing sexual assaults by migrant men to spiral before the events in Cologne brought them to the fore.

The conflict between Christianity and Islam, Rybinska adds, has caused Europe to create its own downfall.