The erotic cakes served by Jolisa Brouwer’s bakery in The Netherlands led to her dismissal as an election candidate for the Unity Party.
Photo: Facebook

A Dutch Islamist political party has parted ways with a Jewish member whose election candidacy was intended to soften its jihadi image after discovering that she owns a bakery specializing in X-rated cakes for adult parties.

Jolisa Brouwer — a baker from the town of Waalre, in the south of the Netherlands — had been due to stand as the third-place candidate for the Unity Party in March’s national elections.

The party’s leader, Arnoud Van Doorn, is a former right-wing politician who converted to Islam. Van Doorn’s past outbursts against Jews have included a 2018 tweet that urged, “May Allah exterminate the Zionists.”

Van Doorn had previously pointed to Brouwer’s candidacy as evidence that the party was inclusive, and that claims about its antisemitic and jihadi tendencies were unfair.

That tolerance did not extend to Brouwer’s business, however. Her bakery’s website includes an entire section of sexually explicit birthday cakes for customers to order — which proved too much for the Unity Party. Party leaders asked her to stop selling the cakes, she refused, and her candidacy was abruptly ended.

“If we had known this in advance, we would never have placed her on the ticket,” Van Doorn said this week. “These cakes do not conform to the conservative policies we are defending.”

Brouwer herself was unfazed by the criticism, remarking that “We live in the Netherlands, not the Middle Ages.” She said the X-rated cakes were intended for hen nights and bachelor parties and had not caused offense until now.

Brouwer said that she had entered politics to demonstrate that religious and secular people could live harmoniously. She said that she was disappointed that media coverage of her disagreement with the Unity Party had focused on her erotic cakes and the fact that she was Jewish, rather than her broader message of tolerance.