I can't help but respond to Tim Ariosto's letter, "Cartoon rioters perpetuate negative Muslim stereotypes," March 16. I was appalled by the ease with which Ariosto said that, "Anyone who participates in riots ... over something as insignificant as a political cartoon is by definition a radical." With the comparisons made to South Park and Family Guy, how can having a comical Christianity insult in a television show be compared to picturing Muhammad with a bomb on his head?

I'll succumb if you're talking about religious tolerance. But don't you see a conceptual gaffe when we begin to expect their reactions to be identical to that of the rest of us who were born into a myriad of labeled freedoms? I do not justify the riots and violence that followed this incident. But if we let those actions stereotype all Muslims as perpetuators of terrorism, then we have some work to do on our notions of tolerance.

I find the Ariosto's assertions alarming just like when I heard about a Muslim friend not being hired for a job because his last name happened to be that of a terrorist. That makes sense since every American with the last name Bush has to be a conservative Republican supporting the war. Even as educated, civilized individuals, sometimes our actions and assumptions defy all laws of common sense.