Content warning: this article references rape and Islamophobic language
Reporters from GB News (GBN), a popular U.K. conservative news outlet dubbed the “Fox News of the U.K.,” entered Georgetown Arabic and Islamic Civilization Professor Jonathan Brown’s classroom without permission from him or the university on Thursday. The reporters filmed both Brown and his students, asking Brown questions about his recent controversial reply to an X post linking rape cases in the U.K. to Islam.
According to students in the class, reporters with GBN entered the classroom where Brown was teaching his class, “War on Terror at Home” at around 12:40 p.m. with filming and audio equipment. The reporters then began asking Brown questions about his post while filming both him and students in the class. Brown asked them several times to leave the room before he walked them to the door. Before fully exiting, a reporter allegedly stuck his leg in the door to keep Brown from closing it.
Katie McCarthy (SFS ’28), a student in the class who was present during the incident, said that she and her classmates were initially very confused about what was going on. McCarthy was unaware of the controversy surrounding Brown.
“We thought it was like a prank or a hazing thing. The first guy had this big blue microphone, and was yelling, ‘Jonathan Brown, Jonathan Brown,’ so I thought it was a prank, but then I looked and the guy behind him had a big TV camera,” she explained.
The students were having a Zoom discussion with a guest speaker, with Brown and the room, sitting together watching the screen. When reporters entered with the camera, students said that they went directly to Brown and didn’t make an effort to avoid filming students.
“Professor Brown was like, ‘You guys need to get out’ and they wouldn’t leave. And then he said, ‘You guys are scaring students.’ And the guy with the microphone then said, ‘They should be scared,’” McCarthy said.
Afterwards, Brown apologized to students for the situation and told them to come speak to him if they had any concerns. McCarthy said they continued with class because the guest speaker had already made time to visit.
GBN has not responded to the Voice’s requests for comment.
Several of the questions GBN reporters asked were tied to a response Brown made to a post by U.K. Parliament member Rupert Lowe (I), who wrote, “There is a link between the rape gangs and one particular religion — we have seen it again and again and again at our inquiry. That religion is Islam. As a country, we must have the courage to face up to that fact.” In a since-deleted reply, Brown wrote, “Get over it.”
The post from Lowe references a Parliamentary inquiry, or investigation, into incidents of mass grooming and abuse of minors in England and Wales referred to as “grooming gangs.” The inquiry will evaluate whether cultural, religious, or ethnic factors were relevant in the cases, and will investigate the law enforcement agencies involved in addressing these incidents. It began on April 13 and currently has no final conclusions.
Some of the most well-known cases of “grooming gangs,” include prosecuted gang members of Pakistani heritage. Online controversy and comments from politicians like Lowe have largely targeted Muslims as a result of the cases involving Pakistani men in the U.K., where the majority of Pakistani people are Muslim, tying their religion to the crimes.
However, a 2020 study by the Home Office, the U.K. ‘s interior ministry, found that the majority of abuse gangs are made up of white men under the age of 30. The study found that there is not enough evidence to conclude that gangs are disproportionately made up of Asian offenders.
After drawing controversy and significant media attention for the post, Brown has privated his X account.
While his account is private, Brown shared with the Voice an X post he made afterwards clarifying his stance.
“Rupert Lowe and his ilk blame Muslims and Islam for countless social ills and especially claim that Islam and Muslims are somehow uniquely to blame for sex crimes like grooming and gang rape. This is just false,” he wrote. “People need to get over the fact that Muslims live in western countries as law-abiding citizens. This was what I intended in my previous comment.”
Brown has been the subject of a separate controversy over the past year, surrounding a June 2025 X statement posted the day after the U.S. and Israel completed military strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites.
“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,” Brown wrote. “I’m surprised this is what these FDD/Hasbara people have been auto-erotically asphyxiating themselves for all these years.”
As a result of the post, the university placed Brown on leave and removed him as Department Chair of Arabic and Islamic studies, though he retained his position of Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization and returned to teaching this semester.
In a July hearing before Congress regarding campus antisemitism, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) questioned interim President Robert Groves about Brown’s standing at Georgetown, asking, “Is this person really suited to be educating the next generation of American diplomats?” Groves responded that the university was currently investigating Brown.
A university spokesperson wrote to the Voice that GUPD responded to the incident.
“We are aware that a media organization entered a classroom on campus today without authorization,” they wrote. “The members of the media were asked to leave, and they departed. The Georgetown University Police Department responded to a call for service and canvassed the area.”
The spokesperson also said that written permission from Georgetown’s Office of Strategic Communications is required before filming on campus, as the campus is considered private property.
“The University will take appropriate steps to respond to this incident and ensure the safety of our community,” the spokesperson added.
Afterwards, McCarthy said students were most concerned that the reporters had access to information about where the class took place.
“We were all shocked about how they even found our classroom, because that’s not public info,” McCarthy said. “We were all talking about, ‘Are you even allowed to come into a classroom that you’re not a part of, let alone come in and film the teacher and students?’”
McCarthy explained that the incident left her feeling unsettled in the classroom.
“One thing that really is concerning to me is, I feel like a core principle of a university is that it should be a safe place for you to express opinions and thoughts on matters,” McCarthy said. “That’s putting that at risk by having a camera when students are in the midst of learning [or] a discussion.”
