US professor who said Muslims, Christians worship 'same God' leaves college

[INDIAPOSITIVE]

US professor who said Muslims, Christians worship 'same God' leaves college
ByAFP
Published: February 9, 2016
15SHARES
SHARETWEETEMAIL

PHOTO: AP

CHICAGO: A professor at a US Christian college who courted controversy after donning a hijab in solidarity with Muslims has agreed to leave her tenured position.

Larycia Hawkins was placed on administrative leave from Wheaton College in December after posting a picture of herself wearing a hijab on Facebook.

US professor suspended for saying Muslims, Christians worship ‘same God’

Hawkins said she was standing “in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book.”

Her statement came amid a swell of Islamophobia in the wake of attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.

The school faced a backlash in which it was accused of bigotry and curtailing academic freedom.

Administrators at the suburban Chicago evangelical college said the problem was not the fact that Hawkins donned a hijab, but that she wrote “we worship the same God.”

US college moves to fire professor who said Muslims, Christians worship same God

The idea that Christians and Muslims worship the same God is a direct contradiction of the core of the college’s statement of faith, which affirms that salvation is achieved through Christ alone.

Faculty and staff members are expected to commit to “accept and model” the college’s statement of faith with “integrity, compassion and theological clarity,” Wheaton said in a statement.

While Hawkins received a groundswell of support that included demonstrations on campus, some Muslims also expressed unease at her assertions that they share the same God.

Some also criticised her very act of wearing a hijab.

Trump’s anti-Muslim remarks ‘divisive, stupid and wrong’: British PM

After initiating a termination process in January, the college and Hawkins said in a joint statement Monday that they had “found a mutual place of resolution and reconciliation.”

The statement said the two parties reached “a confidential agreement under which they will part ways.”


US professor who said Muslims, Christians worship 'same God' leaves college - The Express Tribune

 

[IndoCarib]

She is a convert in progress. Next we will hear she has converted to Islam

 

[Jlaw]

but it's true.

 

[VCheng]

She is a convert in progress. Next we will hear she has converted to Islam

So what? It is her right to choose any set of personal religious beliefs.

 

[jamahir]

isn't usa supposed to be a beacon of democracy and secularism?? why has the college management rejected her words?? how will they disprove her words logically??

they are supposedly a christian college and yet they don't know anything about islam... perhaps they can consult a speech given by the imam of all muslims, muammar gaddafi, in kampala city i think

She is a convert in progress. Next we will hear she has converted to Islam

you would have been jumping with joy if the same lady had become a devotee of "spiritual guru" sri sri ravishankar in bangalore.

but thankfully she is sane.

 

[XenoEnsi-14]

Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe in the same God. It's how they view it and what they attribute to it, and how they get salvation that differs.

Shema Yisrael:

ד שְׁמַע, יִשְׂרָאֵל: יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ, יְהוָה אֶחָד.
4 Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.
ה וְאָהַבְתָּ, אֵת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, בְּכָל-לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל-נַפְשְׁךָ, וּבְכָל-מְאֹדֶךָ.
5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Mark 12:28-34:

29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

Sahih International: Allah - there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of [all] existence. Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them, and they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills. His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth, and their preservation tires Him not. And He is the Most High, the Most Great.

 

[Viper0011.]

She is a convert in progress. Next we will hear she has converted to Islam

Why would she be a convert? She's just saying the right thing..... There are plenty of Christians who know and agree that Muslims, Jews and Christians in fact worship one God. The question is the process of achieving Salvation, not the ability to question God.

Sadly, in some evangelical schools, the version of "God" is taught by people who, unfortunately, have never read anything beyond that and majority of them use these schools as launching platform for their denomination's superiority in the World.

Many of these guys, don't even have experience or command in the first Testament. Which is VERY similar to Koran, with the exception of Muhammad and Koran being in Arabic. What these geniuses forget, is that even the First Testament was in Greek, not in English. I learned that in my Catholic School when I was 5 years old!!!

Sad to see that these guys sitting in $ 200 million dollar campuses, using religion for political and religious superiority purposes and someone had to lose their job to speak the truth!!

Just as example, when Mr. Adam, Eve, Jesus, Moses, Abraham, Soloman, Joseph, Jonah, Michael, Gabriel are all the same between Jews, Christians and Muslims, and everyone's waiting on Jesus to come to the planet earth to take out the anti-Christ, not sure where the division or separation is, or can be.

Because at the end, everyone's still waiting on Jesus to come and save them. How could TWO God's command ONE Jesus to go down and save their respective population from the anti-Christ ?????

So the bottom line is, there is One God and all humans were created by that God. Translations between different languages don't change that one God. All we have to do is to maintain peace, mutual respect, and cherish the similarities that all religions bring to the table. The entire humanity can benefit from coexistence, peace and stability!!

 

[IndoCarib]

isn't usa supposed to be a beacon of democracy and secularism?? why has the college management rejected her words?? how will they disprove her words logically??

they are supposedly a christian college and yet they don't know anything about islam... perhaps they can consult a speech given by the imam of all muslims, muammar gaddafi, in kampala city i think



you would have been jumping with joy if the same lady had become a devotee of "spiritual guru" sri sri ravishankar in bangalore.

but thankfully she is sane.

So those who become a devotee of "spiritual guru" sri sri ravishankar are insane ???

Only born Hindus are Hindus. Those who convert to Hinduism can not be Hindus.

 

[takeiteasy]

but it's true.

Nope. Due to the alleged "similarity" of the stories, Islam is considered (assumed) by some as an Abrahamic religion. YAHWEH is the God figure for Jews and Christians. Allah is the God - which Muslims believes. It is another matter that Muslims believes "Ibrahim" as their patriarch which can be the reason by they sticking to the "people of the book".

(This is not to poke Muslims; Just presenting the view of Jew/Christian regarding "People of the book")

Jews are the only people of the book. Christianity can be called a heresy spread among Judaism - According to Jews. Or in reality - Jesus Christ tried to mellow down the Judaism creating another religion. Yet, Christianity can be called neo-Judaism. Judaism was (is) exclusive in nature. Christianity OTOH is somewhat inclusive, given the condition that one must convert. Christian/Jewish God is represented as the "God of Abraham, Isahaq and Yacob" - YAHWEH.

Allah, for all reasons may be a pre-existing name which was claimed to be the pagan God (Shiva) of ancient Arabia. Related - Shiva is the God of the ancient pagan people from the east to the west. Shiva is part of Tridev. Tridevi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ..The 3 Goddesses also existed in Arabia and may be part of earlier Islam? Shaivism and it's world influence is underestimated even by many Hindus. When they call Muslims their arch-enemies, they (Hindus) should look into whom these people are?

Islam, according to both Jews and Christians (note the underlined part - this is a point of view) are followers of corrupted teaching. Every biblical story is corrupted if you read them. Instead of Isahaq, they have Ishmael, Jesus is yet another "prophet", Mariam is impregnated by angel Gabriel and such corrupted stories. Muslims assumes the stories in Koran are what is written in Bible, which needs a re-thinking. Christian view is so different - The God is trinity (Father,Son and Rooha-d-Qudesha) which Allah is NOT.

Given the hatred against Qadiyani's for their version of Koran and last prophet, Islamists can learn how X'ians and Jews will be feeling for Islam, for the "blasphemy".

See this comment by a random Jew on Daniel Pipe's (not his view):
Allah is DEFINITELY NOT the same god as the God of Israel, who is also the Christian God, the Father :: Reader comments at Daniel Pipes

 

[Jaanbaz]

Lol @ post above me.

 

[gambit]

Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe in the same God.

How do YOU know ?

Not trying to be a troll, but the question is legitimate -- how do YOU know ?

What we thinks we 'know' about God, in whatever his incarnations, is nothing more than guesswork. To start, no one ever came back from the afterlife to tell us what the afterlife is like. Maybe if we have a clue of what the afterlife is like, we can have a better guess on which religion is the more accurate one regarding worshipping God, and therefore which God is the most true. But to date, no one ever returned from the afterlife to say that the afterlife is land of flowing milk and honey, or that the roads are paved with gold, or that there are 72 virgins for each man.

So if YOU cannot definitively say you know what God is like, your doctrinal guess on which religion have which God is no better than this college who dismissed this professor.

The issue here is that professor Larycia Hawkins made a doctrinal claim that disagrees with the college's version of God. Saying all three religions worships the same God is like saying Christians worships the Buddha. If the Muslims declared there is no god but Allah, it means according to Islamic doctrines, any deity is automatically antagonistic towards Allah. It means no matter how good of a man is the Buddha, it is forbidden to place him on the same doctrinal plane as Allah. Maybe Allah reveals himself and say the Buddha was one of his incarnations suitable for so-and-so time and culture ? But until that day, you cannot place the Buddha on the same level as Allah.

Professor Hawkins may have this view but she should have kept it to herself. She should not have even gave the insinuation that she teaches this belief. She was wrong, not in the sense that I personally know what God is like, but wrong in the sense that her belief is not the same -- doctrines wise -- as the college's. In that, they should part ways.

 

[XenoEnsi-14]

How do YOU know ?

You failed to read my post. In which case I gave proofs, there is no proof of a Trinity in Christianity, it's just a pagan belief in which metaphors were taken literally.

I gave you proof from the Books and now some etymology:

Allah is Al Ilah, al is a definite article which translates to 'the', Ilah is semitic cognate for 'God' (Northern and East Semitic), thus Allah translates literally to 'The God'.

Elohim, same as above, 'The God'.

English comes from a non-semitic Proto-German source.


I'm sorry but Jesus Christ is not God, so comparing the Christian God to Buddha is pretty ignorant.

 

[Viper0011.]

Nope. Due to the alleged "similarity" of the stories, Islam is considered (assumed) by some as an Abrahamic religion. YAHWEH is the God figure for Jews and Christians. Allah is the God - which Muslims believes. It is another matter that Muslims believes "Ibrahim" as their patriarch which can be the reason by they sticking to the "people of the book".

See this comment by a random Jew on Daniel Pipe's (not his view):
Allah is DEFINITELY NOT the same god as the God of Israel, who is also the Christian God, the Father :: Reader comments at Daniel Pipes

Do you have ANY FUKKING idea as to what the hell you are trying to discuss here? Reading your post is like reading a Car mechanic writing about Cardiology!!! The issue is pretty darn sensitive and it would be nice if you either write based on proper research and knowledge, or ask people here to GET that knowledge. Writing stupidity on sensitive topics gives bias viewpoints, instead of the truth and that shouldn't be allowed!!

The quotes and differences you are talking about, are people's perceptions and sentiments, and for the right reasons. Sad part about Islam has always been the illiterates / less educated people following the man holding a Koran and doing his own translation (As George Bernard Shaw said 200 years ago). So due to such translations, the religion has been used for terrorism which then in turn has killed people (and similar stuff happens in Hinduism too, take a look around and see how much violence and killings the BJP/Shiv Sena and RSS Hindu nut jobs do).

Because radical Islamist terrorists have attacked other countries, the issue has been magnified significantly. While the issue with Hindu violence isn't considered "terrorism", rather "Nationalism" or just "Violence" which is incorrect as both forms end up killing innocents and shouldn't be allowed.

But Islam's recent linkage to terrorists has caused bad press. Any common Jew or Muslim or Christian knows that they have a lot of similarities and the history is the same. Also, to correct your false logic, Abraham's one son became the lighthouse for people of Israel and the other one became the starting point of today's Islam in terms of Mohamed. While Jesus is present in all the same characteristics in Jews, Christians and Islam. Islam differs from Christianity in terms of Salvation and the concept of Jesus being the son of God. But he's still there and has Bible that Muslims consider one of their sacred books before Koran.

So at the end of the day, Jews, Muslims and Christians are ALL distant cousins . List me for the Nobel prize this year. I just established the World Peace

 

[gambit]

You failed to read my post. In which case I gave proofs, there is no proof of a Trinity in Christianity, it's just a pagan belief in which metaphors were taken literally.

I gave you proof from the Books and now some etymology:

Allah is Al Ilah, al is a definite article which translates to 'the', Ilah is semitic cognate for 'God' (Northern and East Semitic), thus Allah translates literally to 'The God'.

Elohim, same as above, 'The God'.

English comes from a non-semitic Proto-German source.


I'm sorry but Jesus Christ is not God, so comparing the Christian God to Buddha is pretty ignorant.

You missed the point of my post -- completely.

The point is that unless you know for certain that God exist and in which form, neither you nor the professor nor the college have exclusive claim on how to regard God or Allah or by whatever name. So all your 'proofs' are for naught.

 

[Kompromat]

Well she stated the fact, all 3 Abraham religions follow the same creator. They should have fired Pope John Paul-II for saying it too.