Georgetown U. professor rapped for backing Iran strikes on US base

Dr. Jonathan Brown was also seemingly happy that Iran has inflicted some heavy damage on Israel.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Critics slammed a Georgetown University professor on Monday for hoping that Iran would strike an American base after US bombers and submarines destroyed the Islamic Republic’s three most important uranium enrichment sites the previous day.

Dr. Jonathan Brown, the Alwaleed bin Talal chair of Islamic Civilization in the Washington D.C. university’s prestigious School of Foreign Service, wrote a post on X in which he said, “I hope Iran does some symbolic strike on a base, then everyone stops.”

Belittling the airstrikes, he continued, “I’m surprised this is what these FDD/Hasbara people have been auto-erotically asphyxiating themselves for all these years,” referring to the neoconservative think tank, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and pro-Israel public diplomacy efforts.

He then lauded the Islamic Republic, including among his “main takeaways” on Israel’s Rising Lion Operation that “Iran can take a licking,” and “if Israel attacks Iranian cities, it gets f—ed up pretty bad. I mean I’ve been shocked at the damage Iranian missiles caused.”

Florida Rep. Randy Fine said the teacher should be fired and warned Georgetown’s head that Congress would be calling him to testify before the same panel that famously questioned Ivy League presidents over the antisemitism on their campuses, the Education and Workforce Committee.

“A ‘Professor of Islamic Civilization’ at @Georgetown ‘hopes Iran does some symbolic strike’ on Americans,” Fine responded on X.

“Some civilization. The President of Georgetown will be before @EdWorkforceCmte soon. This demon had better be gone by then. We have a Muslim problem in America.”

FDD CEO Mark Dubowitz reacted by publicizing some background on the professor that seemingly shed light on his worldview.

“Brown is married to Laila Al-Arian, a journalist for the Muslim Brotherhood propaganda outlet Al Jazeera,” he wrote. “Her father, Sami Al-Arian, was deported from the US to Turkey. He was accused of providing material support to the US-designated and Iran-backed terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”

Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor, was deported in 2015, nine years after having pled guilty to “conspiring to provide services” to benefit the Iranian proxy while knowing it was a designated terror organization.

Brown subsequently deleted his post, and told Fox News Digital that his sole intention had been to “call for de-escalation as I am very opposed to American involvement in foreign wars.”

A Georgetown University spokesperson told the media outlet that the school was “appalled that a faculty member would call for a ‘symbolic strike’ on a military base in a social media post.”

The spokesperson seemingly hinted that a much weaker punishment would be meted out than demanded by Fine, saying that the university was “reviewing this matter to see if further action is warranted,” after pointing out that Brown had since deleted the post “and stated that he would not want any harm to befall American servicemembers.”

Iran actually fulfilled the professor’s hopes by firing only 14 missiles at the US Al Udeid airbase in Qatar after it had been evacuated and having warned Doha to expect the strike.

The one missile that wasn’t shot down was off target, according to US President Donald Trump, who made fun of the “weak response” to the Americans’ devastating attack.

Trump subsequently announced on Monday evening that a ceasefire between Israel and Iran had been achieved, and would come into effect on Tuesday.