To the editor:

After reading “Wheaton stands on biblical truth” on your Opinion page, I decided to Google “Allah” to see if the Muslim god is the same as the Christian God. And although I am not as well educated as Dr. Thurman R. Hayes Jr., I concluded very quickly that the Muslim God (Allah) and the Christian God (the God of Abraham) are the same.

I could also quickly determine that Dr. Hayes probably represents the religious right, since he portrays some who might agree with professor Hawkins as representing the “religious left.” Hayes also shows his right-wing bias in adding “mass” to indicate the degree of persecution of Muslims in America.

Professor Hawkins expressed her reason for wearing the hijab, but right-wing Dr. Hayes prefers not to accept her reason as valid, because there is more Muslim persecution someplace else in the world. And his bias shows even when making that point, because he ignores the fact that some Muslim women can be perfectly happy living Muslim life.

I do not see that professor Hawkins’ desire to show solidarity with another religious group had any bearing on her support for Wheaton’s confession of faith.

Wheaton and Dr. Hayes are deliberately misinterpreting professor Hawkins’ actions and words. This is what the right-wing does.

It used religion in a perverted way to maintain slavery and justify Jim Crow laws for many years. And now it wants to use perverted logic to lead us to hate those they hate.

Hayes’ column did shed some light on one subject for me. I understand why Sunday morning services are still the most segregated places in America.

Ronald L. Jordan

Suffolk