good sir, Islam is one of the msot peaceful religions out there. only recently, when we westerners started carving up their land and telling them who was going to own what, did they start pointing out that these jihadist verses and interpreting them as a holy war. The word "jihad" translates to arabic as "strife" or "struggle". it means that they need to struggle to stay within the wills of thei diety. It CAN also mean holy war. Traditionally it did not. Where as chrisitians have historically killed non believers. Chrisitanity has done more harm than islam has because it has been around longer and was radicalized waaaay sooner. Christianity had the inquisitions 9spanish, roman, and vehm), the salem witch hunts, the crusades (we started that. those were muslim lands at that point and while they treated captured christians with dignity, we tortured muslim captives to death). As an agnostic, i can tell you that all religion can fall into either of the two categories that you mentioned. As for waging war with savages, as you put it, You can't. Islam, radicall or otherwise, is an idea.Toquote fiction, " Mr, Cready, behind this mask there is more than just a mask. Behind this mask is an idea and ideas are bulletproof."
Thats why we lost to the vietcong, thats why the Romans couldn't stam out the christians and were forced to adopt christianity, thats why the greeks didn't manage to beat the macabees, why Great Britain lost controll of india thanks to ghandi, and why Martin luther king was so effective. Furthermore, when used on muslims, your idea only makes things worse. If u attack their faith, you really HAVE engaged ina religious jihad with them and according to their faith, they go to heaven when they die fighting such a fight. If you believe this nonsense to be true then logic (being applied with the assumption that said nonsense is actually a fact) would dictate that they should fight just to go to heaven. they believe this is true and will therefore try to fight untill they die and you will have given them justification.
This is why i am agnostic and not atheist. atheists have the same problem the religious people do; they believe only they can be correct and fail to see othe r people's beleifs. we can neither prove nor disprove any religion so the wiser choice is to understand them all to see what motivates it's followers. I look at all religion the way most people look at greek and egyptian mythology. A collection of supernatural stories. The difference is, of course, the contemporary people believe these stories so understanding these is important. i also read this "mythology" understanding that while it is rediculously unlikely, it is possible for one or more of them to actually be true. un likely but feasable.