While social media was abuzz condemning the arrest, the 14-year-old found fans in his President, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter, which has offered him an internship.
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Ahmed Mohamed, who lives in Irving, Texas, USA, was so proud of his homemade clock that he decided to bring his invention in to his school to show his classmates and teachers. “I built the clock to impress my teacher, but when I showed her, she was threatened by it”.
Mark Zuckerberg took his cue from President Obama who, earlier today, sent out a tweet inviting Mohamed to visit the White House.
Obama congratulated 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed on his skills and issued a presidential invitation, in what amounts to a pointed rebuke to school and police officials who hastened his arrest. “Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House?”
The White House then invited Ahmed to Astronomy Night in October, an annual event that brings together astronauts, scientists and other professionals. We live in an age where you can’t take things like that to school.
Monday, the teen’s day ended not with praise, but punishment, after the school called police and he was arrested. Police said Mohamed will not be charged in this case. Ahmed was suspended for three days.
Leaders say that despite claims by critics that Mohamed was profiled, the Islamic Center of Irving is not critical of the way it was handled.
Chief Larry Boyd said Ahmed should have been “forthcoming” by going beyond the description that what he made was a clock.
Religious spokespersons slammed Ahmed’s arrest for being “obviously” about his faith and race, with Ibrahim Hooper stating: ‘The arrest would not have occurred if the student had not been Muslim’.
“I was really mad”, Ahmed said when asked about being handcuffed by police.
Irving’s police chief plans to meet with the student’s father to answer his questions and to help him understand more about how this process evolved. Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that Obama like many others was struck by the news.
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Clinton tweeted that “assumptions don’t keep us safe” and urged the teenager to “keep building”.
