There's something odd about our interpretation of what is written in the koran, it's almost as if we treat the 'fight and kill the infidel' verses as metaphors...for something else...like as if it was a spiritual struggle that never left millions of indigenous people minus their heads, arms and legs... throughout the lands islam conquered by the sword.
I am reminded of something Immanuel Velikovsky wrote about the passages in the Old Testament that we also read metaphorically...he says, (paraphrased) by burning rocks falling from the heavens, the authors meant burning rocks, by pitch ensnaring the people of the exodus, they meant pitch, by a darkness that lasted for many years, that's exactly what was meant...and yet, we read it all as some fairy tale meant to frighten us.
Just as the history of the Israelites in the OT describes the effects of a catastrophe, the koran is clear on islam's intentions for the 'infidel' and why we translate this as a metaphor, really really beats me. They couldn't be more clear about it if they tried. Are we deaf, or just to scared?
Too cowardly to see it for what it is, and hiding behind the rock of wishful thinking, IMHO.