I am amazed at Mr. Carlson’s great cartoon skills; he is a true artist. It is a shame that his research skills are not as honed as his artistic ones.

Last Wednesday’s cartoon accuses Peter King of a witch hunt against Muslims with a blunderbuss. A witch is a ­person believed to have received magical powers from evil spirits to cast spells.

Al-Qaida’s plan over the last few years has been to recruit young Muslims who live in the United States and “radicalize” them to attack us in our ­country. Examples: New York City subway bomber Najibullah Zazi; Fort Hood ­terrorist U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan; Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad; Mumbai plotter David Headley; Little Rock recruiting center shooter Carlos Bledsoe, to name a few. No, al-Qaida is not casting evil spells; they are recruiting people under our nose! And they are doing damage!

Last December, Attorney General Eric Holder said, “There is a growing number of young Americans who are being radicalized and are ­willing to take up arms against our country.” Last month Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said that the threat level is as high now as 9/11 because of the increased Muslim radicalization in our country.

Last week Denis McDonough, the deputy national security advisor to President Obama, said that al-Qaida is recruiting young Muslims who live in the United States to take arms and attack us Americans, and that this threat is real — and is serious.

Back to King: Being the chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, he answered the White House warnings by asking the Muslim community for moderate leadership in providing alternatives to violent Islamic ideology. That’s not a witch hunt.

It looks to me that King was doing his job, trying to keep us safe.

Gabriel Roy

Whispering Pines