Christian professor suspended for wearing Hijab

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December 18, 2015 1:04 PM

A professor at a Christian college has been placed on compulsory leave after wearing a Muslim headscarf on campus.

Larycia Hawkins

A professor at a Christian college in the United States has been placed on compulsory leave by the school authorities after she wore a Muslim headscarf to school.

Larycia Hawkins, a Christian and an associate professor of political science at Wheaton College in Chicago, reportedly wore the scarf to show solidarity for her Muslim counterparts.

Hawkins, who was suspended on Tuesday, December 15, said she wore the veil as a demonstration of her own faith and that she began wearing a hijab to counter “vitriolic” rhetoric against Muslims in recent weeks.

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The college management, however, in a statement, denied that they suspended her for wearing the veil. They explained that she was suspended because of statements she made about similarities between Islam and Christianity on social media.

“In response to significant questions regarding the theological implications of statements that Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Larycia Hawkins has made about the relationship of Christianity to Islam, Wheaton College has placed her on administrative leave, pending the full review to which she is entitled as a tenured faculty member,” the statement read.

The Chicago Tribune reports Hawkins said on social media that Christians and Muslims share the same God, despite some differences between the religion.

“I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book,” Hawkins wrote on Friday. “And [as] Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.”

Hawkins’ suspension will last through the spring semester.

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