In the wake of the atrocity in Beslan, Jeff Jacoby joins the growing chorus of voices asking, “Where is the Muslim outrage?” (Hat tip: WriterMom.)

There have been no public demonstrations by Muslims anxious to make it clear how outraged and sickened they are that anyone could commit such unspeakable deeds as an act of Islamic faith. There has been no anguished outcry by Islam’s leading imams and sheiks. Prominent Muslim organizations in the West have not called press conferences to express their disgust and anger. Once again the world has witnessed a savage episode of Islamist terror, and once again it strains to hear a convincing rejection of the terrorists from those who should care most about Islam’s reputation.

That is not to say there has been no criticism at all. Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to assure him that “this terrorist act … goes against religious teachings and violates human and moral values.” Syria’s official news agency decried the massacre as “a terrorist, cowardly action.” Sheik Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi of Al-Azhar University in Cairo lambasted the murderers for “taking Islam as cover” and said that “those who carry out the kidnappings are criminals, not Muslims.”

But these are boilerplate denunciations, practically meaningless — particularly when they come from sources that sustain Islamist fanaticism (Saudi Arabia), shelter and support terrorists (Syria), or defend suicide bombers as praiseworthy “martyrs” (Tantawi). They condemn no terrorists or terror organizations by name. They offer no help in destroying the infrastructure that recruits, funds, and trains them. And they contain no hint that the global scourge of Islamofascist jihad is a cancer eating away at the Muslim world.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which issues dozens of press releases every month, had nothing to say about the bloodbath in Russia until I requested a comment on Tuesday — four days after the mass-murder occurred and nearly a week after the terrorists, shouting “Allahu akbar,” first seized the school. The statement CAIR then issued doesn’t even acknowledge that the killers were Muslim.