Ahmed Mohamed, 14, the son of Sudanese immigrants, was handcuffed by police after his clock was mistaken for a bomb by staff at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas.
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Irving Police officials eventually released Ahmed and said at a news conference Wednesday that no charges will be brought against teenager for bringing a “suspicious device” to school. “Since I was 7 years old when I basically started when I came to the U.S.”, he says. Since his arrest became public the the online community decided to support inventive boy and his family by creating #IStandWithAhmed hashtag that was tweeted nearly 600,000 times by Wednesday afternoon.
If you listen to Chief Larry Boyd’s statement to reporters, he’s still in blame-the-kid mode. Police handcuffed him and took him to juvenile detention. Google Science Fair tweeted they would save Ahmed a seat for this weekend’s fair.
“The clock is still in the custody of the police. It’s what makes America great”, a message on Obama’s Twitter feed said.
The 14-year-old student was a member of the robotics club in middle school and regularly enjoyed building electronics for fun, the Dallas Morning News reported. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said he is Muslim and the case serves as an example of the climate of hate and manufactured fear around the religion.
Mohamed was even shocked that the President sent him warm wishes and said that he would accept the invitation to go to the White House.
Mark Zuckerberg showed his support on his Facebook page stating, “The future belongs to people like Ahmed”.
“This is an instance where you have people who have otherwise dedicated their lives to teach our children who failed in that effort, potentially because of some things in their conscience and the power of stereotypes”, he said. We encourage all of you to take a photo in front of our shop with your clock and pie.
“I’ve wanted to be on … and I guess now I have a chance to be on there, only if the entrepreneurs on that show would accept me”, Ahmed said.
He also invited him to participate in an astronomy night at the White House next month with premier scientists.
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Asked if the teen’s religious beliefs factored into his arrest, Boyd said the reaction “would have been the same” under any circumstances.
