VRT reports that Flemish daily, De Standaard, which published the Muhammed cartoons on Friday, has received a threatening email.

The email, written in poor English, was sent to almost the entire editorial staff at the paper. Strangely though, it was not sent to the paper’s editor Peter Vandermeersch.

The writer of the email warns the paper’s journalists “you will die sooner than expected, be prepared yourself for judgement day”.

‘De Standaard’ says that it published the cartoons to show solidarity with the Danish paper, at the centre of the controversy. It adds that freedom of speech is one of the basic values in a Western democracy.

Belgian philosopher, Etienne Vermeersch has also received, what he describes as “negative emails”. News channel CNN quoted from an interview Vermeersch gave to the Flemish daily Het Volk in which he said that “Belgian newspapers should publish such cartoons every week to let Moslems get used to them.”

Speaking in Monday’s edition of ‘De Standaard’ Vermeersch says that his words were taken out of context. He meant to say that over the years, Christians have become used to seeing satirical images of their religious figures.

He goes on to contrast the way in which the Christian and Islamic faiths handle criticism. “I’ve been attacking the Catholic church for 30 years, but the only reaction I ever get from them is that they will pray that I convert to the faith”.

He also compared the dignified reaction by Buddhists to the destruction of the Afghan Buddha statues to the violent reaction by some Moslems to the cartoons. The Belgian Moslem Executive also comes under fire from Vermeersch.

The philosopher says that the executive should put the publication of the cartoons into perspective and realise that some of its statements, in recent days could provoke extreme reactions.

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