PARIS: French Prime Minister Manuel Valls stressed on Monday there was no link between extremism and Islam, as he opened a conference aimed at improving ties with France’s large Muslim community.

“We must say all of this is not Islam,” said Valls. “The hate speech ... the self-proclaimed imams in our neighborhoods and our prisons who are promoting violence and terrorism.”

The first forum — to be attended by 120 to 150 Muslim leaders as well as top government officials and ministers — will debate security at religious sites, the image of Islam in the media and the building of new mosques.

There are some 2,500 mosques in France, with another 300 projects under way, but creating new Muslim places of worship has sometimes prompted fierce opposition from local residents.

In one case, the mayor of the Parisian suburb Mantes-la-Ville, who belongs to France’s far-right National Front party, has repeatedly tried to halt a project to turn a city-owned site into a mosque.

“Today the situation calls for renewed attention from public powers. This forum is an opportunity for us to express our discomfort with being lumped together” with extremists, said Dalil Boubakeur, president of the French Muslim Council (CFCM).