Updated January 13th, 2020 at 14:45 IST
Indian-American Professor fired for "joke" about Iran bombing US 'Cultural Sites'
An Indian-American professor named Asheen Phansey, who joked about the ongoing situation between US and Iran in a Facebook post, has been fired by his college
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An Indian-American professor named Asheen Phansey, who joked about the ongoing Iran situation in a Facebook post, has been fired by his college. Babson College said that the post on his "personal Facebook page does not represent the values and culture of the College", according to a local television news channel. Asheen Phansey had apologised last week calling his post "sloppy humour" that was "read as a threat".
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Asheen Phansey's post
In his post, Phansey had reacted to US President Donald Trump's tweet on January 4 about targeting sites that are "very high level and important to Iran and the Iranian culture". Attacking sites of cultural heritage is a war crime under international law and US officials contradicted Donald Trump, saying that Washington would not target them.
....targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Following Trump's tweet, Asheel Phansey said on Facebook that "Iran should also select 52 US sites to bomb such as the Mall of America in Minnesota or the residence of the Kardashians."
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He was the director of sustainability at Babson College, located in Wellesley, about 20 km from Boston, specialises in business and entrepreneurship education.
"I am really concerned about what this portends for our ability as Americans to engage in political discourse without presuming the worst about each other," Asheen Phansey told a local media organisation. "People willfully misinterpreted a joke I made to my friends on Facebook," and had hoped the college "would have defended and supported my right to free speech."
However, the college said that it "condemns any type of threatening words and/or actions condoning violence and/or hate."
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(With inputs from agencies)
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Published January 13th, 2020 at 14:45 IST