RIYADH, Jan 22: The Jeddah-based Organisation of the Islamic Conference has urged the new US President Barak Obama to help foster a constructive dialogue between Islam and the West.

“We warmly welcome your expressed desire to give a major address in a Muslim nation soon after you assume the presidency and hope it will mark the beginning of a more fruitful and better-informed dialogue between the West and the Muslim world. We firmly believe that America, with your guidance, can help foster that peace, though real peace can only be shared – never imposed. A nation can either be great or feared, but rarely both at the same time”.

The OIC statement stressed that Muslims “have compelling strategic and moral reasons to cooperate and peacefully co-exist with the United States in particular, and with the West in general.”

It welcomed the appointment of a US special representative to the OIC and said the group looked forward to working with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who was “no stranger to the Muslim world.”