In Wednesday's Collegian I was very disappointed to see the column by Adam Tarosky "Muslim Holy Leaders need to reclaim their faith's true meaning."

It's good that Adam noted the Mideast conflict is indeed "escalating" to say the least, but he has it all wrong. The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians put very simply is a very old battle over land. They have been fighting over the same land for so many years that it has become a part of their culture to "hate" the other. This has nothing to do with religion. (There are Arabs living in Israel, Adam.)

While Adam did hit a chord with his argument on keeping the faith's true meaning, quoting one ambiguous verse from the Koran is not going to show anything about the correlation between violence, government and the Muslim faith.

There are several different issues that Adam tried to tackle all in one article, and this weakened his argument. The biggest those issues was the misunderstanding of jihad and justification of violence. Adam, do you really know what jihad is? I don't think so.

So as far as I'm concerned, unless you are a true Muslim or you really really know what you are talking about, don't go throwing around the term, especially in the same sentence with "holy war."

Be careful in saying that only holy men can stop the violence. Only a miracle can stop the violence that has been going on so long it is in their blood. You can't stop several generations of deep hate and horror that we as Americans will never truly understand.