Muslim academic Dr Jonathan Brown, a Georgetown University professor, has been placed on leave after he posted a tweet last month calling on Iran to strike a U.S. military base.
Dr Brown has also been removed as the chair of the school’s Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, the University’s Interim President Robert M. Groves said on Tuesday.
The tweet in question, now deleted, has been circulating as a screenshot, where Professor Brown said: “I’m not an expert, but I assume Iran could still get a bomb easily. I hope Iran does some symbolic strike on a base, then everyone stops.”
This post on X came one day after the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear targets in June.
The tweet was removed within minutes of it being posted, as the university dean contacted Professor Brown almost immediately.
President Groves said that “we issued a statement condemning the tweet… We’re beginning a process of reviewing the case.”
Reaction from Muslim intellectuals
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The decision by Georgetown University has caused widespread outrage from the Muslim community, various intellectuals and academics, and colleagues of Brown.
Dr. Yasir Qadhi, a renowned Muslim scholar and theologian, said that the investigation into Brown was because of a “Zionist-led witch hunt.”
Qadhi said the motivations behind the tweet were not born out of malice or ill-intention, but rather an attempt to demonstrate that violence does not result in peace.
“Regardless of whether one believes the sarcasm in his tweet was wise or not, the double-standards of ‘investigating’ someone who showcases Israeli violence, while ignoring the thousands of voices that call for Palestinian extermination and who cheer the Israeli genocide is hypocritical and damning,” said Qadhi on X.
Omar Suleiman, the American Islamic scholar and civil rights activist, was also quick to comment on the situation, saying: “Brown was making the point that with some sort of retaliation expected from Iran after US attacks on the three Iranian nuclear facilities, instead of responding by indiscriminately bombing civilian targets as Israel does in Gaza and Iran.”
Since the onset of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Brown has been an outspoken opponent of the Israeli government.
