Georgetown professor walks back statement that Iran should perform 'symbolic' strike on U.S. base
Georgetown Professor Jonathan Brown said in a viral X post that he hopes Iran strikes a United States military base.
Brown has since deleted the post and made his X account private.
A Georgetown University educator appeared to indicate that he hopes that Iran strikes a United States military base after the U.S. struck Iran’s nuclear facilities on Saturday.
Jonathan Brown, Georgetown’s chair of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies and the director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, made the comments to his X account on Sunday.
“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,” said Brown.
“I’m surprised this is what these FDD/Hasbara people have been auto-erotically asphyxiating themselves for all these years,” his post continued.
He also posted, “Ironically, the main takeaways (in my non-expert opinion, and I’m happy to be corrected) from all this have nothing to do with a US attack: 1) Iran can a licking; 2) if Israel attacks Iranian cities, it gets f****d up pretty bad.”
Professor at Georgetown University @Georgetown says he hopes Iran strikes a US base pic.twitter.com/KaasDhgprQ
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 23, 2025
“I mean I’ve been shocked at the damage Iranian missiles caused; 3) despite his best efforts, Reza Pahlavi HVAC repair services still only third best in Nova,” his post concluded.
After Brown’s message went viral on social media, he reportedly backtracked on his claims, stating that he was not, in fact, calling for violence. “I deleted my previous tweet because a lot of people were interpreting it as a call for violence. That’s not what I intended,” he posted.
“I have two immediate family members in the US military who’ve served abroad and wouldn’t want any harm to befall American soldiers,” Brown added in his since-deleted post.
On Monday, Iran targeted a U.S. Air Base in Qatar following America’s bombing of three major Iranian nuclear sites.
Since the initial post, Brown has made his X account private. Now, only his followers can read what he posts.
Also a professor in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Brown is described on his Georgetown University profile as having expertise on countries like Iran, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Turkey, and Syria.
Additionally, Brown is the author of several titles, including Slavery & Islam, Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenges and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy, and Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World.
Brown serves as the director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which offers students research opportunities at the university with the possibility to obtain a minor in Muslim-Christian Understanding.
[RELATED: Radical Islamic Kent State prof calls Oct. 7 ‘miracle,’ says it planted ‘seed of freedom’]
Fox News reports that Brown is married to a journalist for the television network Al Jazeera whose father was deported to Turkey for supporting and aiding an Iranian terrorist organization.
A user on X, Asra Nomani, also uploaded a video of what appears to be Brown recording a woman in a lecture-style hall during a conference for the Islamic Circle of North America, with the user claiming that Brown had harassed her and repeatedly asked her to leave for being “Islamaphobic.”
⛳️⛳️⛳️ The Many Red Flags of Georgetown’s Jonathan AC Brown ⛳️⛳️⛳️
I am heartened that @JonathanACBrown has revealed to the world the sick Muslim radical that he is. @Georgetown has long ignored the efforts of Muslim reformers like me to hold him accountable for the extremism… pic.twitter.com/tRBVWSo52Z— Asra Nomani (@AsraNomani) June 23, 2025
In a separate post on X, another user pointed to a screenshot of a statement Brown had made about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, citing how the professor had called him an “Alcoholic trainwreck with grad-student-level ‘opsec’.”
🛑 Georgetown “professor” Jonathan Brown has the balls to mouth off about the Sec. of Defense having a tattoo. Brown’s wife works for Al Jazeera and his father-in-law was deported in 2015 for terrorist activity. END. TAXPAYER. FUNDING.
Georgetown endowment: $3.7 BILLION. pic.twitter.com/ykZ7C8Q3Lx— NizNellie3 (@NizNellie3) March 28, 2025
Campus Reform has contacted Georgetown University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
