You'll find that the peaceful, tolerant Islam exists only in the minds of bumbling uniformed media idiots who refuse to think for themselves.
A key factor to keep in mind is the Islamic "us against them" mentality that justifies a double standard in their dealing with others. While honesty is generally a virtue, it is not necessary when dealing with the infidel - you.
To really understand Islam then, you must go to the source. For every tolerant passage in the koran, you can find a vicious, intolerant, jihad inducing passage. This is due to the fact that Muhammed's views changed over time. At first he wanted to accept the Jews and Christians, the "people of the book". But when they rejected his message, and scoffed at his claim to be a prophet, his pride and anger resulted in the concept of jihad.
History shows that the intolerant passages have won out over the tolerant passages again and again. The best Islam can boast of is not persecuting the Jews and Christians it relegated to second class citizens.
Islam was spread by the sword, conquering the Arabian penninsula, northern Africa, Spain, the Holy Land, Turkey, and pushed toward Vienna. This was not a peaceful expansion, but an Islamic crusade, a jihad.
Muslims have pushed civil wars and insurrections, piracies, revolutions, hijackings, kidnappings, assassinations, etc. for all of its existence. We're just seeing a resurgence of the same old Islam today.