College director fired after joking Iran should make list of US cultural sites to bomb: 'Mall of America? Kardashian residence?'

Babson College says it conducted a 'thorough investigation' into the joke before firing director of sustainability after 15 years on with school

Babson College (Creative Commons)

An adjunct lecturer and director in Massachusetts has been fired for what he now calls a “bad attempt at humour” amid uneasy tensions between the US and Iran.

Babson College director of sustainability Asheen Phansey had posted his joke on Facebook earlier in the week after Donald Trump threatened to potentially commit a war crime by bombing 52 Iranian cultural sites, if necessary.

Mr Phansey then suggested that ayatollah Ali Khamenei “should tweet a list of 52 sites of cultural American heritage that he would bomb.” He even provided some options: “Um … Mall of America? … Kardashian residence?”

Mr Phansey later apologised for the joke, telling Boston news outlets on Wednesday evening that he was trying to rib the US a bit for its lack of ancient culture. “I am sorry that my sloppy humour was read as a threat,” he said through his attorney.

Retribution for the joke was swift, and Babson — a private business school in Wellesley — announced in a statement on Thursday that they had let go of the employee after 15 years with the college.

“Babson College conducted a prompt and thorough investigation related to a post shared on a staff member’s personal Facebook page that does not represent the values and culture of the college,” the college wrote in a statement on Thursday.

The statement continued: “Based on the results of the investigation, the staff member is no longer a Babson College employee. As we have previously stated, Babson College condemns any type of threatening words and/or actions condoning violence and/or hate.”

Mr Phansey has lamented the firing since, saying in a statement that the joke was “willfully misinterpreted” and that he would have expected the school to defended his right to free speech as an educator.

“I am disappointed and saddened that Babson has decided to abruptly terminate my 15-year relationship with the college just because people willfully misinterpreted a joke I made to my friends on Facebook,” he said.

He continued: “I would have hoped that Babson, an institution of higher education that I love and to which I have given a great deal, would have defended and supported my right to free speech. Beyond my own situation, 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.”

Mr Trump threatened to bomb Iranian cultural sites earlier this week in a tweet, writing: "Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have.... 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 threat was met swiftly by criticism, with experts warning that international law prohibits the deliberate destruction of civilian objects that are not being used for military purposes. Those experts said that, if Mr Trump approved bombings of cultural sites that were not thought to be harbouring military assets, the attacks would be perceived as war crimes.