Hijab-wearing Christian professor stands by solidarity with Muslims after suspension

A non-Muslim US professor at an Illinois Christian college who donned a hijab in solidarity with American Muslims says that she will not back down after her suspension this week.

“I reiterate my intentions. My motivation is to demonstrate Christ’s love during a time of profound marginalization of our Muslim brothers and sisters. I act out of my love for Jesus and His call for me to love all my neighbors,” Dr Larycia Hawkins, a professor of political science, said in a statement emailed to The Independent late Thursday.

Dr Hawkins began wearing the hijab — the headscarf worn by some Muslim women that models the coverings believed to have been worn by the women in the Prophet Mohammed’s family — to work on December 11. The demonstration followed a call by Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump to bar Muslims from entering the country following a deadly attack in San Bernardino, California believed to have been inspired by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria armed group.

“This advent, I'm standing with my Muslim neighbors out of my love for Jesus and the love I believe He has for all of the world. And I’m not alone in this. Here in Illinois and throughout the U.S., other followers of Jesus have shown that the loud anti-muslim voices we hear in the media do not speak for all American Christians,” Dr Hawkins said.

Hawkins was placed on paid “administrative leave” pending a review of the circumstances at a Tuesday meeting with the Wheaton College Provost.

Wheaton officials have said that her leave was not about the hijab but statements on “the relationship of Christianity to Islam”. Christianity maintains that Jesus was the son of God, and Muslims believe that Jesus was one of many prophets that preceded the final emissary of God on Earth, Mohammed.

“The freedom to wear a head scarf as a gesture of care and compassion for individuals in Muslim or other religious communities that may face discrimination or persecution is afforded to Dr. Hawkins as a faculty member of Wheaton College. Yet her recently expressed views, including that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, appear to be in conflict with the College’s Statement of Faith,” Wheaton said in a press release, adding that the suspension was “in no way related to her race or gender”. Wheaton spokespeople were not immediately available for further comment.

But Dr Hawkins appears to be standing by her statements and hijab, which she has said in social media posts she only wore after consulting with the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group in an attempt to ensure that her protest would not amount to an appropriation of Muslim culture.

“I am committed to engaging in dialogue with appropriate colleagues at Wheaton toward the goal of reaching reconciliation so that I may continue to live out my vocation as a Christian scholar and teacher with my faculty colleagues and my remarkable students.”

Dr Hawkins said that she has submitted “a theological statement” requested by Wheaton authorities and will finish grading final exams “as a commitment to my students”. She offered no further comment on whether she had been required to conduct any form of self-criticism in her theological statement to college officials.