Lagos — United States President Barack Obama has tried in the past six months to remake the world, not in the image of his country as his immediate predecessor tried to do. He has avoided, and well-advisedly too, the saber-rattling of the Bush era.

Instead, the first Black president of the most powerful country in the world has tried in line with his campaign promise to repair the damage in the relations between his country and the rest of the world, especially the Moslem community.

Obama had campaigned as the man who was prepared to talk with America's arch-enemies in a bid to forge a new atmosphere of co-operation and rapprochement between the US and particularly the Arab nations. Given the tension between the US and many Moslem nations under the Bush administration and the negative consequences of that on world peace, Obama's gesture of an early visit to Turkey, an influential Moslem country, and his most recent visit to Egypt, is well advised. The two visits and his speeches on both occasions have gone a long way to show that the US President is genuinely interested in forging a new atmosphere of understanding and co-operation between the US and other countries. They also demonstrate as the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs has said, Obama's continuing effort to engage the Moslem world.

During his visit to Egypt, Obama reiterated his abiding faith in the possibility of improved relations between the West and the Moslem world, based on mutual respect for each other's values and cultures. No culture is superior to the other. While each nation needs reforms to improve the quality of life of its citizens, none has the right to impose its values on others. Attitudes such as that are more likely to foster stronger relationship between the US and the rest of the world than the gun-boat diplomacy of the Bush era.

In Cairo, Obama called for a new beginning in the relationship between the US and the Moslem world. "I have come here," he told his audience, "to seek a new beginning between the United States and Moslems around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap and share common principles-principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."

In that reassuring speech, the US President gave the Moslem world cause to trust him, to work sincerely for improved relations between his country and theirs. He traced his Christian-Muslim background and paid adoring tribute to Islam as a modernising agent through the ages. While rejecting the tactics of Moslem extremist groups like the Al Queda which threaten world peace, Obama promised to fight against undue prejudices on both sides in order to bring about better understanding between the two worlds.

There is no doubt that mutual suspicion had been at the heart of the frosty relations between the West and the Moslem world. To that extent, Obama's gesture is more than symbolic, it represents a critical shift of policy by the US in its attempt to not only improve relations with the Moslem world but also to make the world a safer place.

Particularly noteworthy is President Obama's remarks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his words, "Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong. Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's The only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security."

We cannot agree more with him. We therefore call on the Moslem world to give the US President the benefit of the doubt, and for it extremists to shun violence. It is through such reciprocity that relations between the two worlds can be improved upon and the world made a much safer place for all.