In a nation increasingly fractured by faith, one evangelical College has courted controversy and angered its own students by suspending a teacher who said Muslims and Christians worshipped the same God.
Dr Larycia Hawkins, a teacher of political science at Wheaton College in Illinois, has been placed on administrative leave following comments she made on Facebook. Dr Hawkins, who has been at the faculty at the private school since 2007, said: “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.
“I stand in human solidarity with my Muslim neighbour because we are formed of the same primordial clay, descendants of the same cradle of humankind.”
Dr Hawkins decision has provoked protests and a renewed debate on the campus and further afield over relations between Muslims and Christians. Tensions with Muslims in America have been fuelled by Donald Trump’s desire to deny them entry, and the mass shooting at San Bernardino, California, by two apparent Isis supporters. Ms Hawkins has chosen to wear a hijab throughout Advent to show “human solidarity” with Muslims.
Wheaton College said the teacher’s views, “including that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, appear to be in conflict with the College’s statement of faith”. The college added that her suspension was “no way related to her race, gender or commitment to wear a hijab during Advent”.
Amid protests on campus, dozens of Wheaton students have drafted a letter asking college authorities to reconsider the suspension.
Michael Sadgrove, a Church of England priest, criticised the College’s decision and said that “we very definitely do worship the same God”. He told The Independent yesterday that he was “very surprised” by the College’s reaction.
“Scholars of religion all acknowledge – universally – that the roots of the three religious traditions are the same” he said. “Christianity, Judaism and Islam belong to the same family of faiths.”
