How many times since 9/11 – when nearly 3,000 Americans were killed by radical Muslims – have we asked each other where the moderate Muslims are? Where are the imams denouncing the violence committed in the name of Islam? We asked the same after the attacks on the Little Rock recruiting office, after Fort Hood, after the Islamic State group beheadings of Americans overseas. After the Boston Marathon bombing and Mumbai and Madrid and London and Paris. After San Bernardino.

You'd never know it from the media, but Muslim leaders have denounced terrorism committed in the name of Islam over and over again. Apparently covering terrorist attacks drives more ratings than reporting on press conferences afterward – so the media doesn't bother. It's not surprising that many Americans have come to believe that perhaps there just are no moderate Muslims.

Case in point: Last week, while the American press corps was breathlessly reporting on whether Donald Trump would boycott the next debate, a small group of Muslim men and women launched the Muslim Reform Movement here in Washington. Led by Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, who is a medical doctor and a former U.S. naval officer, the group held a press conference at the National Press Club, issued a statement of their principles, and – in a move reminiscent of the famous "95 Theses" that Martin Luther posted on a church door in 1517, sparking the Protestant Reformation – affixed their precepts to the door of the Islamic Center in the heart of D.C.'s Embassy Row.



The Muslim Reform Movement's full declaration is available here, but take a look at the executive summary:

▪ "We reject interpretations of Islam that call for any violence, social injustice and politicized Islam. We invite our fellow Muslims and neighbors to join us.

▪ "We reject bigotry, oppression and violence against all people based on any prejudice, including ethnicity, gender, language, belief, religion, sexual orientation and gender expression.

▪ "We are for secular governance, democracy and liberty.

▪ "Every individual has the right to publicly express criticism of Islam. Ideas do not have rights. Human beings have rights.

▪ "We stand for peace, human rights and secular governance. Please stand with us!"

This is exactly what we've all been waiting to hear. But while The Washington Post reported beforehand that the event would be taking place, once it did, the Post didn't even send a reporter. Instead, the Post editors ran a Religion News Service report and only posted it online – it didn't make the regular paper. As far as I can tell, The New York Times didn't run a story at all. Neither did the evening news broadcasts that night on ABC, NBC and CBS.

I don't know why the press ignored it. But I can take a guess. I think it's because the Muslim Reform Movement goes against two narratives that are out there right now.

The first, espoused by the Obama White House and its surrogates, resists naming violence committed in the name of Allah as "radical Islam." Instead, one should use euphemisms like "radical jihadis" (is there such a thing as a "moderate jihadi"?) and "violent extremists," out of a concern for spreading Islamophobia. Instead of talking about innocent lives being taken by Islamic State group terrorists, the White House would prefer to talk about stopping gun violence and how climate change is causing radicalization. Asra Nomani, a moderate Muslim who is also a journalist and author, says this attitude is known as "the Ostrich Brigade," and "it's used to describe all those people who are burying their heads in the sand. I call it the three D strategy: denial, deflection and a demonization of those of us who want to speak honestly about these issues of extremism."

Exhibit A is Hillary Clinton's recent statement: "Let's be clear, though. Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism." Really? Nothing whatsoever? Islam is not our adversary – radical Islam is – and while there are many, many peace-loving, law-abiding Muslims in the world, suggesting that no adherent of the religion is engaged in terrorism is to defy reality.

The second dominant narrative that crowds out the moderates' message is that all Muslims are violent terrorists who should be banned from the United States. The idea that the world's 1.6 billion Muslims, or anything more than a tiny sliver of them, are a radical monolith doesn't deal in reality either. And it goes against our founding principles of religious liberty and tolerance. But it's a distressingly popular thing to suggest, especially if you are leading in the Republican presidential race.

Both sides are equally extremist.

No religion's followers are completely homogenous. Think of all the varieties of Christians there are, for example; the four different denominations of Hinduism; the various strains of Judaism ranging from Hasidic to Reform. Even the Catholic Church is surprisingly all over the map, from "cafeteria Catholics" to the diversity of opinion within the College of Cardinals. Like every other world religion, Muslims do not speak with one voice. The fact is that there are Sunnis and Shias, and there are also radical Muslims who kill others in the name of Allah.

Muslims are not indistinguishable from each another. We owe it to them to differentiate between the radicals and everyone else.

That's where the Muslim Reform Movement comes in. These men and women are putting their lives at risk as moderate Muslims who are willing to speak out. "We are opposing a very real interpretation of Islam that espouses violence, social injustice and political Islam," Nomani said on "Meet the Press" earlier this month. "We have to take back the faith. And we have to take it back with the principles of peace, social justice, and human rights, women's rights, and secularize governance."

The debate on that show then turned to whether Islam is a religion of peace. National Review's Rich Lowry made the argument that the question is irrelevant for outsiders to decide. "It's for Muslims to decide whether it's a religion of peace or not," he said. "And if enough of them do, then you cut off the oxygen to the radicals. But at the moment, the extremists have significant financial, popular and theological backing in the Middle East. That is an enduring phenomenon. And it's one that is going to require a long, ideological war to win."

Lowry's right. Part of the strategy to defeat Islamic State group involves air strikes and special ops and better surveillance. But it also involves a protracted effort to change hearts and minds. What the Muslim Reform Movement is doing – bravely, publicly – is to start cutting off the oxygen to the radicals.