US prof leaves Christian college after hijab row

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 her wearing a hijab on Facebook.

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."

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. After initiating a termination process in January, the college and Hawkins said in a joint statement on 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."