DURHAM, N.C. — Duke University has canceled plans for Muslim students to sound the traditional call to prayer from the school’s iconic chapel tower amid threats of violence and a backlash from anti-Muslim groups, conservatives and Christian leaders.

Muslim prayers have been held inside the neo-Gothic chapel for several years, said Duke’s vice president for public affairs, Michael Schoenfeld, with the traditional Islamic call to “hasten to worship” issued at the service itself.

University officials had announced that beginning Friday, prayers would begin with the chant delivered from atop the towering 210-foot belfry.

Under the plan, first a male student would chant in Arabic, then a female student would read an English translation. A small set of speakers would be set up to amplify the call so that people at the base of the skyscraper-like tower could hear it. The procedure was developed after months of discussion among religious-life officials at the university, scholars and students.