Radical Islam Isn’t the Only Source of Terror

Though I would agree with Michael Ramirez’s cartoon (Commentary, Feb. 15) that terrorism (Islamic or otherwise) is indeed a cancer, medicine teaches us that we must locate the cancer even earlier if we are to prevent disease.

The birth of a tumor on the body begins with more seemingly benign growths such as American Airlines pilots who announce religious preferences, Georgia school superintendents who subvert science and actors whose Passions are more aimed at divisiveness than spiritual sustenance.

Ramirez’s cartoon depicting radical Islam as “The Cancer” is itself a manifestation of the growth of radical Christianity. Ramirez would do well to get his own house in order before throwing stones.

Tom Impelluso

San Diego

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Ramirez is right about the cancerous nature of terrorism. However, to single out radical Islam and ignore radical Christianity and radical Judaism is American ethnocentrism at its worst.

Has Ramirez forgotten the assassination of abortion doctors or the murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin? Perhaps these cancer cells should be drawn a bit smaller. But let us not forget that radicalism and any religion is a dangerous mixture.

Norman M. Pate

Chatsworth