Lost In Mistranslation

Harpoon Siddiqui suggests we infidels, erm, laypeople, lay off translating the Koran because, unlike  Islamic "theologians," we're bound to get it wrong, wrong, wrong. As a for instance, Harpoon cites the example of those oft-quoted "sword verses":

Islamic tradition also holds that the “sword verses” were, in fact, overtaken by others revealed later when peace prevailed between Muslims and non-Muslims. Thus the Qur’anic exhortations to avoid war altogether, limit warfare, and, if attacked, to respond only proportionately, protecting civilians and not mutilating the dead.

So you see friends, we have it precisely backward. Those nasty, post-Hejira passages don't abrogate the earlier nicey-nice Meccan one. The nicey-nice Meccan ones abrograte the nasty jihad ones.

I'm prepared to buy it. Just as soon as the devout are prepared to accept that "72 virgins" is a mistranslation of "72 white raisins."