Skip to content
  • Image
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Podcasts
  • Email
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Opinion
  • News
  • Features
  • Comment
  • Store
The Arab Daily News

The Arab Daily News

Original news, features, opinions from Chicago to Jerusalem

  • About
    • About
    • Our Writers
    • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
    • Book Store
    • Contact
    • Submit Book Reviews, Press Releases
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Corrections Policy
    • Profile on Ray Hanania
    • Submit Press Release
  • Features
    • Food
    • Book Review
    • Humor
    • Movies
    • Travel
  • Arab Stores Targeted
  • Arab Community Network Page
    • Arab Community Network Page
    • Arab Heritage America resources
    • Directory
      • Groups & Organizations
      • Mosques, Churches
      • Restaurants
      • 2008 & 2014 Arab Media Directories
    • National Arab Heritage Month
    • Video: Chicago Arab History
    • Video: Photo Array of Chicago Arabs
    • Overview of Arabs in America
    • Hanania standup comedy
    • Arabs on the Titanic
    • Obituaries
  • Podcasts
    • Arab News Ray Hanania Radio
    • Ray Hanania on Politics Podcast
    • Podcast Info
    • Hanania Podcast intro
    • Live Arab Radio
  • Your Views
  • Hanania on Tiktok
  • Toggle search form
  • Arab Democratic Club Feb 12, 2023 Forum & Brunch flier
    Arab Democrats host forum for Chicago and suburban candidates Feb. 12 American Arabs
  • The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced Dr. Manal Fakhoury has been elected to the position of Chair of the National Board of Directors, and that attorneys Spojmie Nasiri of California and John Floyd of Texas have joined the organization’s National Board.
    CAIR Announces Dr. Manal Fakhoury as New Board Chair, New Board Members Spojmie Nasiri and John Floyd American Arabs
  • AHRC Executive Director Imad Hamad
    AHRC: Honor Dr. King Day with Civility, Unity, and Action American Arabs
  • Citgo Gas Station and Quik Mart at 3759 W. Chicago Ave in Chicago ordered closed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot because a street gang member with an AK-47 killed someone in front of the store. Only Arab and Muslim stores are being closed by the Mayor
    When Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot targeted Arab businesses in 2021 and 2022 Activism
  • Hussam al-Mayman, The Mayman Show, podcast Arab News
    Arab News launches third season of The Mayman Show podcast Arab News
  • State Rep. Cyril Nichols interviewed on live Arab American radio in Detroit with host Ray Hanania Friday Dec. 9, 2022
    Nichols discusses need to improve Arab-Black relations in Chicagoland American Arabs
  • Voting sticker issued to voters in Cook County elections in 2016. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania
    Gov. Pritzker Announces Six Appointments to Boards and Commissions — no Arabs included American Arabs
  • Closure notice posted on the doors and windows of Arab American businesses during Mayor Lori Lightfoot's closure of Arab owned stores in June - Sept. 2021. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania
    Pritzker again ignores needs of Arab businesses in latest appointments Activism
  • Arab American Democratic Club (AADC) official candidate endorsements for the November 8, 2022 General elections.
    Arab American Democratic Club issues endorsements for Nov. 8, 2022 Cook County Illinois elections Activism
  • Arab Democrats urge NO VOTE on Gov. J.B. Pritzker re-election bid Activism
  • Assyrian American GOP issues endorsements in Nov, 8, 2022 elections
    Assyrian American GOP group endorses candidates in Illinois Activism
  • Abdullah Hammoud, elected Mayor of Dearborn Nov. 2, 2021. Photo courtesy of Abdullah Hammoud Facebook Page
    AHRC’s 2022 Spirit of Humanity Gala a Great Success American Arabs
  • Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts Arab World
  • Rep. Cyril Nichols to be feted by supporters at fundraiser Saturday Oct. 22 Activism
  • Stand up For Human Rights website, United Nations
    UN experts condemn Israel’s ‘sadistic’ punitive measures against French-Palestinian rights defender Salah Hammouri Activism

Wheaton professor says views don’t contradict Christianity

Posted on January 8, 2016September 29, 2018 By rayhanania No Comments on Wheaton professor says views don’t contradict Christianity
SHARE ...
          
 
  

  • Tweet

Wheaton College professor Larycia Hawkins defended her actions in arguing that Muslims and Christians believe in the same God, but said she is confident she will prevail. Hawkins was suspended with pay by Wheaton College and is facing a termination hearing

By Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania covering Chicago City Hall (1976-1992)
Ray Hanania
covering Chicago
City Hall
(1976-1992)

Wheaton College Political Science Professor Larycia Hawkins said Friday that she believes the comments she made that got her in trouble with the Wesleyan Christian college are consistent with the fundamentals of the Christian faith.

Hawkins posted a statement on social media that she said reflected “solidarity” with Muslim women who are being “vilified” in American society and who need support.

On December 10, 2015, Hawkins wrote on her Facebook Page, “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.”

Hawkins also made subsequent statements she said brought her to the attention of the Wheaton College provost who said the college was suspending her with pay until the college board could review the matter.

And, she also posted a photograph of herself wearing a Hijab, a covering worn by Muslim women as an expression of religious faith and modesty. A Hijab is not a berqa, which covers a Muslim woman’s face, and it is similar to headscarves worn by Christian and Jewish woman during prayer. Wheaton College has stressed it did not take its action because of the Hijab, but has failed to publicly explain the motives or reasons behind Hawkins’ suspension.

Wheaton College has a history of racial conflict and has been accused in the past by the school’s small minority of African American students of discriminating against Blacks.

Larycia Hawkins

The Hawkins suspension drew immediate criticism from across the country and the world, questioning the Christian message that Wheaton College conveys to its students and even its claim to be a “Christian” academic institution.

“I have seen an outpouring of love and support from across the country and even around the world and it means a lot to me,” Professor Hawkins said during an interview on The Arab Daily News Radio program broadcast live on Friday morning (Jan. 8, 2015) by the US Arab Radio Network in Detroit and in Washington D.C.

Hawkins, who started a “Peace and Conflict certificate program” to help educate her students about the challenges they will face as Christians in our society, said she was compelled to post those comments, even though it has risked her losing her job.

“What I am doing is not heroic. It is not courageous. It is humans walking hand-in-hand with humans. It is walking a mile in my Muslim sister’s shoes and as a Christian, this is what Jesus teaches,” Hawkins said during the radio show.

“What I was thinking about is that I can’t teach my students what I am not willing to do myself. You have to lead by example.”

Hawkins emphasized that she remains “on Administrative leave. I have not been fired. They continue to pay my contract why I am on leave.”

Larycia Hawkins
Larycia Hawkins

She said she has faith in the process, although she is concerned about its outcome and that she will not be allowed to defend herself with the support of a lawyer as the college moves to conduct a “Termination Hearing.”

Hawkins explained the process of the “Termination Hearing” will have the Provost present the charges against her, which she can answer directly but again without legal consul before a panel of nine of her college peers.

“The panel will make a decision and make a recommendation to the president of the college,” Hawkins said.

“The president then makes his own recommendation to the board of trustees and the board of trustees will make the final decision.”

Hawkins says she knows some of the nine members of the panel.

“The decision of the panel of nine is non-binding. It may matter. It may not. It feels like a kangaroo court. I get to speak on my behalf but Wheaton says my attorneys cannot be present and I feel very vulnerable,” she explained. “I trust the members of the board to be committed to the process and I trust them to treat me with the honor and dignity of my nine years that I have been at Wheaton.”

Hawkins said she was compelled to express her comments on her Facebook Page as an effort to support “human dignity” in a Christian manner.

“Perhaps we do not understand human dignity or we don’t take it seriously … human dignity is the essence of everything. It should be the essence of our politics in the United States and it doesn’t seem to be,” she said, noting that stereotypes and how people appear impact how people who see us think.

She argued that wearing a hijab should not be considered controversial. The real issue is freedom of expression for women who are oppressed and vilified.

“Freedom of religion” is “written off” for Muslim women “who wear the Hijab,” she said.

Hawkins said she wanted her students to contemplate the issues related not just to wearing the Hijab and what it stands for but also to think about issues related to the religion of Muslims and Christianity.

“I wanted to honor my brothers and sisters in Islam. … This is not about someone at a Christian college getting attention …”

She said she didn’t want to be disrespectful to Muslim women or to Christians, and had reached out to a friend on the Muslim human rights organization, CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) for guidance on issues of respect in wearing the Hijab.

Despite the persecution, Hawkins said she was proud of her nine year tenure at Wheaton College, saying, “I have the privilege of teaching at an amazing liberal arts college. I have the privilege of being educated at elite institutions of higher education. That is a responsibility.”

But she said people cannot sit in their “Ivory towers” and just make money. “We have to bond with those who are victims in our society,” she said. “We have responsibilities to embody solidarity with the most vulnerable people in our society.”

Hawkins said she was surprised by the reaction of the college, but denied claims that she was somehow contradicting her own faith as a Christian, which she described as “strong.”

“Calling Muslims as Brothers and Sisters was seen as somehow conflating Islam and Christianity. In Christianity were refer to each other as brothers and sisters in the family,” Hawkins said.

She said the College asserted that because of her posts, she was “not being consistent with Christianity,” especially with the the college’s “Statement of Faith.”

“Things have been extrapolated from what I wrote, things like I don’t believe in the Trinity. That is not true. I have never stated that in any situation,” she insisted.

“It was a statement of human solidarity with women who are suffering, women of the Muslim religion who are being falsely vilified in our national rhetoric and across the globe.”

Listeners to the radio show seem divided over the controversy with some arguing that Muslims and Christians do not believe in the same God, and others insisting that Muslims and Christians and Jews have the same religious origins and worship many of the same Biblical prophets.

You can listen to the entire radio show by clicking here.

You can also listen to the podcast of the show by using the podcast widget below. (Or, you can go to iTunes to download the podcast.)

Read my column at Creators Syndicate on the Hawkins-Wheaton controversy.

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
rayhanania
rayhanania
Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster at The Arab Daily News
RAY HANANIA — Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster

Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.

Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).

Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.

Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.

His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.

Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.

Click here to send Ray Hanania email.

Follow RayHanania on Gettr.com, the uncensored Twitter Ray Hanania on Gettr, the new Twitter
rayhanania
Latest posts by rayhanania (see all)
  • Israeli-push behind effort to ban Tiktok in the United States - January 19, 2023
  • Arab Democrats host forum for Chicago and suburban candidates Feb. 12 - January 18, 2023
  • CAIR Announces Dr. Manal Fakhoury as New Board Chair, New Board Members Spojmie Nasiri and John Floyd - January 12, 2023

  • Tweet

SHARE ...
          
 
  
 
          
 
 Tweet 
American Arabs, Bloggers, Christian & Muslim, Commentary, Editors Picks, News, Podcast, Radio Podcast, Ray Hanania, religion, Social Media Tags:African Americans, Christians, discrimination, Islam, Larycia Hawkins, Muslims, racism, Wheaton College

Post navigation

Previous Post: New film explores challenges facing American Arabs
Next Post: Trump’s ban on all Muslim entry to the US plays into hands of terrorists

Related Posts

  • Right wing militias targeting Mosque and Muslim groups American Arabs
  • The Difficult is the Path Itself, discrimination in France Abdennour Toumi
  • War rages between U.S and Arab World Airlines American Arabs
  • President Trump, speak out against Anti-Semitism American Arabs
  • NBC Journalist Vivian Salama emcees the 20th Annual AAI Gibran Gala. Photo by Jason Dixson Photography. Photo courtesy of the AAI
    AAI’s Gibran Gala honors champions of humanity American Arabs
  • Netanyahu
    Netanyahu vs Obama on US Iranian policy Bloggers

More Related Articles

Chart showing drop in Qatari finances. Credit Rating falls. Photo courtesy of Moody's Qatar’s credit rating drops dramatically Arab World
Jim Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute in Washington D.C. leads a discussion April 26, 2017 on the failure of the USCIRF to speak out against religious discrimination against Christians and Muslims in Israel. Leaders challenge USCIRF failure to defend Muslim, Christian rights American Arabs
Arab Palestinian Investment Company – APIC Issues 35 Million US Dollars Bonds Arab World
Sanders edge in Michigan may be due to Arab support American Arabs
Arab Democratic Club endorses Garcia over Fioretti American Arabs
Book Cover of The Map of Salt and Stars by author Jennifer Zeynab New book explores the Syrian Refugee crisis Arab World

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • OPINION COLUMNS
  • Tiktok.com/@RayHanania
    Israeli-push behind effort to ban Tiktok in the United States
    January 19, 2023
  • Ghassan Rubeiz
    To what extent is Hezbollah responsible for the current crisis in Lebanon?
    January 17, 2023
  • Image from Rashid-al-Din Hamadani's "A Compendium of Chronicles. Image courtesy of Wikipedia
    Why allow religious extremists to re-define Islam in the West?
    January 10, 2023
  • CAIR Executive Director and co-founder Nihad Awad
    This Thanksgiving, let’s use our Blessings for good
    November 23, 2022
  • NEWS
  • Arab Democratic Club Feb 12, 2023 Forum & Brunch flier
    Arab Democrats host forum for Chicago and suburban candidates Feb. 12
    January 18, 2023
  • The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced Dr. Manal Fakhoury has been elected to the position of Chair of the National Board of Directors, and that attorneys Spojmie Nasiri of California and John Floyd of Texas have joined the organization’s National Board.
    CAIR Announces Dr. Manal Fakhoury as New Board Chair, New Board Members Spojmie Nasiri and John Floyd
    January 12, 2023
  • AHRC Executive Director Imad Hamad
    AHRC: Honor Dr. King Day with Civility, Unity, and Action
    January 11, 2023
  • Citgo Gas Station and Quik Mart at 3759 W. Chicago Ave in Chicago ordered closed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot because a street gang member with an AK-47 killed someone in front of the store. Only Arab and Muslim stores are being closed by the Mayor
    When Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot targeted Arab businesses in 2021 and 2022
    January 4, 2023
  • NEWSWIRE
  • Arab Democratic Club Feb 12, 2023 Forum & Brunch flier
    Arab Democrats host forum for Chicago and suburban candidates Feb. 12
    January 18, 2023
  • The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced Dr. Manal Fakhoury has been elected to the position of Chair of the National Board of Directors, and that attorneys Spojmie Nasiri of California and John Floyd of Texas have joined the organization’s National Board.
    CAIR Announces Dr. Manal Fakhoury as New Board Chair, New Board Members Spojmie Nasiri and John Floyd
    January 12, 2023
  • AHRC Executive Director Imad Hamad
    AHRC: Honor Dr. King Day with Civility, Unity, and Action
    January 11, 2023
  • Stand up For Human Rights website, United Nations
    UN experts condemn Israel’s ‘sadistic’ punitive measures against French-Palestinian rights defender Salah Hammouri
    October 19, 2022

Creative Commons License
All work on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Do not edit original work. Give credit to the original source.

  • ZiyadBrandLogo-2016BlackRedBackgrnd.jpg
  • 08-09-21-Ziyad-Ad-Pantry-essentials.jpg
  • 08-09-21-Ziyad-Sices-Ad.jpg
  • BOOK REVIEWS
  • Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    October 24, 2022
  • Stories My Father Told Me by author and artist Helen Zughaib, book cover. Photo courtesy of Cune Press
    Stories My Father Told Me by author and artist Helen Zughaib
    November 1, 2021
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • Hussam al-Mayman, The Mayman Show, podcast Arab News
    Arab News launches third season of The Mayman Show podcast
    December 15, 2022
  • Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    October 24, 2022
  • Comedian Ramy Youssef courtesy of his Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ramysfaceboo/
    “Ramy” cable series melds Arab world reality with every day American life
    October 22, 2022
  • The Ray Hanania Radio Show Live Wed 5 PM EST in Detroit, Washington DC, Ontario and on Thursday in Chicago. Watch the program live at Facebook.com/ArabNews
    Second Season of “The Ray Hanania Show” Arab American radio launches April 6
    April 4, 2022
  • American Arab CHamber President HassanNijem accepts the Proclamation from Chicago Ald. Roderick Sawyer at the Chamber dinner March 30, 2022
    Chicagoland celebrates Arab American Heritage Month
    March 31, 2022
  • New-iTunes-1400-x-1400-The-Ray-Hanania-Show-Podcast-Icon-300-x-300.jpg
  • powerpr300x300ad.jpg
  • Podcast-iTunes-Logo-Chi-City-Hall-1985.jpg
  • The-Kings-Pawn-Book-300-x-300.png
  • terroristbookcover-300-x-300.jpg
Arab News Newspaper Logo
Read the Arab News, the leading English language newspaper in the MIddle East

Follow Ray Hanania at Gab.com, MeWe.com and IDobbinate.com, the alternatives to Facebook and Twitter Censorship.

Click here to get information on The Ray Hanania Radio Show and its podcasts

Copyright © 2023 The Arab Daily News.

Powered by PressBook Premium theme