Georgetown University revealed on Tuesday that it had removed a tenured professor from his chairmanship position after he supported a “symbolic” Iranian strike against a U.S. military base.
Jonathan Brown, the Alwaleed bin Talal chairman of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, attracted controversy over a now-deleted social media post he made in June responding to the Trump administration’s decision to become involved militarily in the conflict between Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Israel, which sparked due to concerns surrounding Iran’s nuclear program.
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After the United States bombed three Iranian nuclear sites in targeted strikes, Brown suggested that broader conflict could be squelched and “everyone stops” war if Iran responded with “some symbolic strike on a base.”
In response to critics who accused the professor of advocating violence against U.S. troops, Georgetown University interim President Robert Groves revealed during a congressional hearing that Brown had been placed on leave and removed as chairman of the school’s Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies. The university’s swift move likely allowed it to avoid a Title VI investigation from the Trump administration, which has scrutinized a host of schools, including Harvard University, over responses to anti-Israel protests and faculty.
“Within minutes of our learning of that tweet, the dean contacted Professor Brown, the tweet was removed, [and] we issued a statement condemning the tweet. Professor Brown is no longer chair of his department, and he’s on leave, and we’re beginning a process of reviewing the case,” Groves said on Tuesday during a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on campus antisemitism.
After the Trump administration bombed Iran last month, Khamenei launched retaliatory attacks against a U.S. military base in Qatar that left little damage and were widely viewed as a symbolic strike, allowing the Iranian regime to save face.
Trump suggested he gave Iran the green light to attack the military base in retaliation for his own strikes, saying that Iran signaled when and how it would retaliate, allowing U.S. and Qatari air defense to be ready for the attack, and avoiding escalation into a regional war feared by analysts.
“I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured,” the president wrote in a post to Truth Social following Iran’s attacks.
The Iranians “were very nice. They gave us warning,” Trump told reporters as he departed from a NATO summit last month. “They said, ‘We’re going to shoot ’em. Is one o’clock OK?’ I said, ‘It’s fine.’”
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In addition to his controversial comments on the Iran conflict, Brown attracted censure in 2017 over statements he made during a lecture on Iranian slavery and sex. At the time, critics accused the Georgetown University professor, who is a Muslim, of condoning slavery and non-consensual sex in Iran while condemning Western societies for the same problems.
“I don’t think it’s morally evil to own somebody,” and “Consent isn’t necessary for lawful sex” were a few of the statements made by Brown that spurred debate.