Are the Muslim and Christian God the same?

A teacher at an evangelical Christian college who announced that she is wearing an Islamic headscarf as part of her Advent Worship has been suspended from the school.  In a Facebook post alongside images of her wearing the headscarf, she said it was her duty to love others and quoted Pope Francis saying that Muslims and Christians ‘worship the same God’.

http://www.farrahgray.com/evangelical-christian-college-professor-vowed-wear-hijab-holidays-declared-muslims-christians-worship-god-suspended/

Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?  Pope Francis has affirmed that we do, and, given what we know about Jesus from his teaching and actions as portrayed in the Gospels, I believe Jesus would as well.



To me the question makes as much sense as asking whether Christians and Jews worship the same God, or whether the different denominations and sects that make up Christianity worship the same God; Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Pentecostals, Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, and multiple others.  We all have a slightly different image and characterization of God and what God requires of humanity.  We all hold some scripture in common in our canons but not all of it.  We all trace the origins of our faith back to Abraham.  However, most of us would agree that we all, "worship the same God".

For Christians, the question should come back to what we think Jesus would say.  Of course in Jesus time on earth neither Christianity or Islam existed.  Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi who belonged to post-exilic Rabbinical Judaism.  He and his early followers saw themselves as thoroughly part of that religion and were offering what they felt was the most faithful interpretation and way of living it.  This interpretation was not thought of as a separate movement or religion until much later. But there was a form of Judaism in Jesus time that was considered separate from his own, the Samaritans, and I believe that his teaching and actions towards the people of this group can give us some insight into this question.

Like Christians and Muslims, Rabbinical Jews and Samaritans traced their origins to Abraham and Moses, shared some scripture as canon while not others, and had different characterisations of God and what God expects.  It is thought that the split occurred with the Babylonian exile with Samaritans comprising those who were not taken to Babylon.  With the return from exile, some of those who had remained viewed the returnees as having corrupted Judaism while away.  While those who returned viewed the others as having been unfaithful for having intermarried with non-Jews.  Their canon diverged. The Samaritans accepted only the first five books of the Bible as canonical, and their temple was on Mount Gerazim instead of on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The Samaritans were also geographically separated from the Rabbinical Jews who would go out of their way in travel rather than be contaminated by passing through their territory.

However, Jesus, as portrayed by the Gospels, did not condemn or criticise them, but taught that they should be accepted and treated them as having equal access to God.  He made a Samaritan the hero of his story illustrating how to live out God's command to love our neighbour.  The Samaritan woman at the well asks him directly which religion is "correct" and his response is that God's true followers will worship him in spirit and truth.

Given his teaching and actions, I would have to surmise that Jesus would affirm that a religion that counts himself as one of their prophets worships the same God as himself.