[1] Colin Powell hosted an Iftaar dinner (the evening meal to break the day's Ramadan fast) last night at the State Department.

In his address to the gathering, he declared: "I have learned about Islam as a religion of peace and caring, a religion that teaches values we all share, such as tolerance, justice, and respect for human dignity."

That's wonderful, and it's undoubtedly true that millions of Muslims share the values of tolerance, justice, and respect for human dignity. It's also undoubtedly true that within Islam there are broad and established traditions with quite different takes on tolerance, justice, and respect for human dignity from what we might expect. One need only look at Shirin Ebadi's struggle to end, among other things, [2] stonings and amputations in Iran -- efforts which are resisted by the leaders of Iran on Islamic grounds.

Look at the Iranian Sufi leader, Sheikh Tabandeh, who wrote A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To take one of many examples: while arguing for capital punishment if a Muslim is killed, Tabandeh argues against it if the murderer is Muslim and the victim non-Muslim. "Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim . . . then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain. A fine only may be exacted from him . . ."

What does this have to do with Powell's iftaar? Everything. For Tabandeh's views are not just how own. They are quite widespread in the Islamic world, and they are a key guide to its attitudes toward the West today. It is nice, and diplomatic, for Powell to assert otherwise, but I hope that he is aware that his statement of what Islamic attitudes are is not universally accepted by Muslims, and that that fact has important geopolitical implications.