David Cameron visited one of Britain’s leading mosques yesterday and had a “blazing row” with its elders.

He had arranged the trip after last week’s antiterrorism raids in Birmingham, after which Mohammad Nasseem, chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, declared that Muslims in Britain were now like Jews in Nazi Germany, and that the Government was inventing the threat of terrorism to justify imposing a police state. For his part, Mr Cameron caused anger last week by comparing those who want Sharia to supporters of the British National Party and suggesting that some of the groups’ leaders were extremists.

Speaking on the steps of the mosque, Mr Cameron criticised Dr Naseem for saying that the terrorist threat had been invented to turn Britain into a police state.

“He’s completely and utterly wrong and I think that’s not responsible at all. It’s quite clear from the events of 7/7 and other events that Britain does face a terrorist threat and we need to confront that and defeat it.

“We have the rule of law, we have an independent police force and they do an extremely good job.”

During their meeting, the Islamic conservative and the political Conservative disagreed on various issues, including the role of Sharia. Dr Naseem said that it had been explained to Mr Cameron that Sharia already operated in Britain, in particular in relation to family law. “We made clear to him that there is nothing new and horrible about Sharia,” he said.

They had a “robust discussion” about the July 7 bombings, which some Muslims believe was done by government agents to justify new antiterrorism legislation. Dr Naseem said that there should be an independent public inquiry.

Last week the Conservatives upset Muslim groups when they said that some, including the Muslim Council of Britain, were dominated by extremists trying to promote segregation.

Dr Naseem said: “The MCB is moderate — it has government approval.” Asked whether many Muslims would vote for Mr Cameron, he told The Times: “I doubt it very much. How will Muslims vote for a party which dubs the MCB extremist?”

A Conservative source said after yesterday’s meeting: “You can’t just tell people what they want to hear.”

Dr Naseem said: “For dialogue to be meaningful, we had to be frank. Dialogue is always better than isolation. We agreed to disagree. It was robust.”

Another source described the encounter as a “blazing row”.

Yesterday relatives of those in custody over the alleged plot to kidnap and kill a Muslim soldier claimed that the suspects had still not been questioned in detail about it.

Six days after the arrests, a family member, who asked not to be named, told The Times that two of the men had been interrogated for the first time yesterday, saying: “Police just seem to be on a fishing expedition, asking the men if they know a certain person, or have been at a particular house. The subject of kidnapped soldiers being captured and filmed while they are beheaded just hasn’t arisen.”

Families are asking lawyers to oppose any request to magistrates to extend the suspects’ detention. They can be held for up to 28 days.

Police are in a race against time to analyse material taken from properties around Birmingham. They are searching for two men who were said to have escaped surveillance teams hours before the raids were ordered. The timing was against the advice of some counter-terrorism figures who hoped that further leads would otherwise emerge.

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