Atwood Primary in Croydon was forced to call off a Year 5 class visit to a mosque after nearly a third of parents refused to give consent.
Headteacher Alex Clark said the religious education tour of Croydon Mosque was no longer “financially viable” after nine out of the 30 pupils were withdrawn, with several Christian parents saying they did not want their 10-year-old child to be exposed to a “religion that was not their own”.
Croydon Mosque believes the reaction was due to the mosque featuring on BBC Newsnight after a senior Home Office official was exposed as an activist for the radical Hizb-ut-Tahrir group.
Tanveer Sajjad, for the Croydon Mosque, said: “There is no question of children being exposed to radical preaching.”