Before 43-year-old Larycia Hawkins, an associate professor of political science at Wheaton College, was placed on administrative leave last month for suggesting Muslims and Christians worship the same God, she was one among many others who believe that believers of both Islam and Christianity do indeed pray to one God. At the time of her dismissal, the tenured professor had also been wearing a hijab to show “embodied solidarity” with Muslims around her, promising to sport the headscarf through the Advent season, even while teaching at the evangelical liberal arts college in Illinois.

In a December 10 post on her Facebook page, Hawkins had explained why she decided to endorse the hijab, writing, “I don't love my Muslim neighbor because s/he is American. I love my Muslim neighbor because s/he deserves love by virtue of her/his human dignity. I stand in human solidarity with my Muslim neighbor because we are formed of the same primordial clay, descendants of the same cradle of humankind--a cave in Sterkfontein, South Africa that I had the privilege to descend into to plumb the depths of our common humanity in 2014. 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.”

It was the last bit of this post that Wheaton College apparently objected to.

In a short statement issued on December 15, college administrators said Hawkins had been placed on leave in response to important questions that arose from her theological statement about Islam and Christianity. The following day, college administrators clarified that Hawkins’ views, including the one about Muslims and Christians worshipping the same God, seemed to conflict with Wheaton’s Statement of Faith, which all faculty members agree to sign on a yearly basis. College administrators confirmed Hawkins’ right as a faculty member to wear her headscarf “as a gesture of care and compassion” while explaining that her suspension was in no way related to her gender, race or commitment to wearing a hijab during the Advent season.

They stressed that they primarily objected to Hawkins’ infusion of the gods of Islam and Christianity, which was made evident in her post with the phrase “people of the book”. In the Koran, that particular phrase is used to describe Jews, Christians and Muslims, who are all believed to worship the Abrahamic God. But this notion is highly contended by most conservatives, who resist the idea of believers of other religions, such as those adhering by Islam, pointing their prayers towards the Biblical Yahweh and not the Koranic Allah.

Hawkins, who is the first African-American woman to become a tenured professor at Wheaton College, has been on paid leave since and that is likely to continue through the end of the spring semester.

On December 16, a group of 100 students gathered at Wheaton to protest the college’s decision to suspend Hawkins. While some young girls wore hijabs to show solidarity with Hawkins, others had already posted photographs of themselves in hijabs on the professor’s Facebook page. The students also launched a petition to have “Doc Hawk” reinstated. That petition has received more than 55,000 signatures so far.

“In the midst of a toxic socio-political environment where Muslims are the target of stigmatization, acts of aggression, and proposed policy which targets and alienates them, Dr. Hawkins acted in love and in solidarity to be an example of how Christ would respond,” the petition reads. “We believe there is nothing in Dr. Hawkins' public statements that goes against the belief in the power and nature of God, Christ, or the Holy Spirit that the Statement of Faith deems as a necessary requirement for affiliation with Wheaton College.”

After the students handed over their letter to Wheaton College President Philip Ryken, they were thanked for staging a peaceful protest and letting their grievances be heard.
“I really want to affirm your right to disagree with the administration about a decision that has been made. I really appreciate the peaceful spirit with which you have come to demonstrate today. I just want to value those things,” Ryken said. “Also, I want to affirm the things that you see in Dr. Hawkins. Those are things that I have seen first hand as well and have affirmed both privately and publicly. At some level, I think I understand the frustration and also feel the pain of what we are going through right now.”

The same evening, Hawkins spoke at a press conference in Chicago, reaffirming the original goal of her gesture and promising to wear the hijab until Christmas.

“This Advent, I’m standing up with my Muslim neighbors out of my love for Jesus and the love I believe he had for all of the world,” she said, “And I’m not alone in this.”

However, this is not the first time that Hawkins has been pulled up by administrators, as she has already been asked to affirm Wheaton’s Statement of Faith four times in her nine years at the evangelical college. She was once cautioned for writing a paper on what Christians can learn from black liberation theology. The second time, she was warned after posting a photo on Facebook that showed her partying in Chicago during a rainbow pride parade. The third time, Hawkins was rebuked for suggesting that curriculums should use diplomatic vocabulary to discuss sexuality.

Photo Credits: Chicago Now