People keep talking about "moderate Muslims," but I haven't read much about who they are, where they are, or how to find them.

Now I read about Israel's plans to talk to them:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli diplomats will court moderate Muslim leaders in Europe to counteract the sway of Islamists hostile to the Jewish state, a Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday.

The initiative was announced as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made a fence-mending visit to France, among European nations where Jews have complained of anti-Semitism among Muslims sympathetic to a 4 1/2-year-old Palestinian revolt.

Israeli embassies in Europe have long kept track of local Islamists whose rhetoric is believed to have stoked anti-Jewish sentiment. Reda Mansour, a veteran diplomat from Israel's Druze Arab minority, said moderate Muslims would now also be sought.

"We will continue to search out and identify the extremist entities who encourage anti-Semitism and are sometimes involved in inciting terrorism," Mansour told Israel's Army Radio.

"But the novel element here is that we also want to find the silent voice -- to give it a means of speaking out so that it will condemn terror, condemn anti-Semitism, and connect with the local Jewish communities for the sake of joint civil actions."

There are moderate Muslims, but when they dare to do things like demonstrate against terrorism, it isn't much reported by the MSM.

Why not?

Certainly, it's possible to read the words of moderate Muslims. A lot of them are speaking up. But for the most part, their words only get play at web sites like MEMRI.

Why is that? I mean, you'd almost think they were out there demonstrating for Bush or something.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Is support for Israel's right to exist considered moderate? (I hope so.)

MORE: Dean Esmay and Baldilocks have written posts about an organization of moderate Muslims called the Free Muslims Coalition. It looks great to me and I'm only too glad to encourage this effort in any way that I can.

Dean said, "I wish more bloggers would write about these guys."

(Thanks, Dean. This one just did.)

UPDATE: It has occured to me that a principal reason moderate Muslims are ignored is because they are perceived as lacking in power. According to CNN, the first senior international leader to meet with Hezbollah terrorist chieftain Nasrallah Nasrallah was Kofi Annan, who met with him in Beirut. The BBC called the meeting a "de facto recognition" that Hezbollah was the main force in the area. While there might be plenty of moderate Muslims in the area too, meeting with them might get you killed by Nasrallah's forces. The MSM respects power, and after all, no reporter wants to incur the wrath of the strong by interviewing the weak.

The result is all too predictable:

I realize that this power formulation doesn't take into account possible political biases, but when they're factored in, well, the result becomes even more predictable.

MORE: In a business context, Glenn Reynolds offers some thoughts about the big guy empowering the little guy. I think this approach might be very helpful in understanding how and why to advance the cause of moderate Muslims.

UPDATE: This article by Cliff May (Islam doesn't prevent Muslims from joining Free World) is a must read. I think the problem with recognizing the existence of moderate Islam is that it might be seen as aiding democracy in Iraq. Which in turn is seen as aiding Bush. Thus, those who oppose Bush think they must oppose freedom.

What a tragedy that Bush is on the side of freedom!