Perhaps the reason why a Catholic Pope kissed the Koran is for the same reason why Christ embraced the Cross, the instrument of His bodily destruction. (Matthew 16:24-25)
If the Crucifix is OUR victory that Christ is Life over Death, then what WILL be said of Christian victory over heresy?
The Pope kissing the Koran was the first step of submission to Islam in the eyes of Muslims. Muslims have the goal of occupying the Vatican. The first mosque built in Rome designed its highest point to be taller than the highest point of the Vatican. The Muslim goal is worldwide conquest and extermination of all other religions and believers.
The Koran denies the divinity of Christ. There is absolutely, positively, no way you can spin kissing it as some sort of heroic act. Christian martyrs died because they refused to bow to Islam. Kissing the Koran spits on their sacrifice.