Listening to some of our politicians, one might imagine the West Midlands is a hotbed of religious conflict.

A high-profile Birmingham councillor has been accused, without justification, of holding extremist views.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister himself has highlighted Birmingham’s largest mosque as an example of extremism by suggesting that “the people in Birmingham Central Mosque, or wherever”, believe that 9/11 was a Jewish conspiracy.

What a contrast with the comments of Mohammed Naseem, the mosque’s chairman.

In an interview with the Birmingham Post today, he accuses both Labour and the Conservatives of creating divisions – but also highlights the way that different faiths in the city are working together.

Indeed, one of the most visible examples of inter-faith friendship occurred after the 9/11 attacks, when the late Birmingham Rabbi Leonard Tann made a point of making regular visits to the mosque as a mark of solidarity with the Muslim community at the time.

It’s significant not only that he held out his hand in friendship, but that the mosque and many of its congregation accepted it.

What’s not entirely clear is whether David Cameron intended to single out Birmingham Central Mosque as a place where conspiracy theories might be aired.

Perhaps he simply meant that such opinions may exist among some Muslims, and made his point in a clumsy way.

Having said that, the Prime Minister’s comments, made in a newspaper interview, did echo similar comments made when he was leader of the opposition in 2007, after he stayed with a Muslim family in Birmingham and reported that he had come across conspiracy theories at a city mosque.