Cornwall school pupils banned by parents from visiting mosque in Exeter over 'terror fears'

The school plans to take 91 children to the mosque as part of their Religious Education (RE) lesson

(Creative Commons)

Parents of children at a school in Cornwall have withdrawn them from a planned visit to a mosque over "safety concerns".

Lostwithiel School plans to take 91 pupils to the Exeter mosque as part of their Religious Education (RE) lesson.

However some parents reportedly "raised concerns about safety due to the activities of terrorist groups such as Isis".

Parents of 10 children, aged 7-11, said they were not willing to permit them to join the visit.

The Muslim Council of Britain called the parents' decision "disappointing" and said it hoped the incident was "atypical and not reflective of a growing sentiment against Muslims in this country".

Percy Prowse, the lord mayor of Exeter, told the Exeter Express and Echo the children would be missing a "golden opportunity".

Exeter mosque's imam, Mohammed Abrar, told the Guardian he wanted to invite the concerned parents to visit the mosque for themselves.

"This does happen sometimes but I am not aware of it happening too often, perhaps normally it is one or two individual parents, and we have to respect their choice," he said.

"But we are a mosque in Exeter, and if someone does something [elsewhere in the world], you can’t blame everybody here for it."

A Cornwall Council spokesperson told The Independent: "All schools in England are required by law to provide a broad and balanced curriculum which enables their pupils to understand British society and culture.

"This aspect of the curriculum forms part of inspections carried out by Ofsted Inspectors who assess schools' provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

"As a local authority we encourage all our schools to provide a broad, balanced and enriched curriculum, and this is what Lostwithiel is doing."