A professor of political science has been suspended from duties for a very queer and controversial reason.
Larycia Hawkins
Larycia Hawkins, a professor at Christian college in the United States has been placed on leave for wearing a headscarf to show solidarity with Muslims.
Fox News reported that Hawkins, a Christian and an associate professor of political science at Wheaton College in Chicago, was suspended on Tuesday.
Hawkins, however, defended her action, saying it was a demonstration of her own faith and that she began wearing a hijab to counter “vitriolic” rhetoric against Muslims in recent weeks.
The associate professor said she felt it was important to show solidarity with Muslims who may feel threatened after the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino in California as well as the call by Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump for Muslims to be blocked from entering the US.
“Theoretical solidarity is not solidarity,” the tenured faculty member said.
The college said in a statement Tuesday that it placed her on leave 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 school insists that Hawkins’ suspension doesn’t reflect on her desire to wear the headscarf, but rather the explanation she gave as to why she was wearing the headscarf.
The Chicago Tribune reports Hawkins said on social media that Christians and Muslims share the same God, despite some differences between the religion.
While Hawkins had received some support from her colleagues, Denny Burk, a biblical studies professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. told the newspaper that Hawkins didn’t clarify her statement well enough and claimed she denied Christian teachings.
Hawkins’ suspension will last through the spring semester and sparked protests on the Wheaton College campus from students who called for her reinstatement, according to the Tribune. Christian leaders also supported Hawkins at a news conference Wednesday.