To support Ahmed Mohamed, the Muslim high schooler who found controversy when he brought a purportedly homemade clock to his Texas high school, students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hung a clock of their own in the school’s entrance.
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The clock Mohamed made contained no explosives. He was handcuffed and taken to a juvenile detention center. The boy was subsequently suspended from school for three days, and even got arrested by local authorities before they eventually closed their investigation.
Taking to Facebook to voice her displeasure at Obama’s decision to invite the teenager to the White House, Palin condemned the “reactionary-slash-biased media” for siding with the boy and defending his “dangerous wired-up bomb-looking contraption”.
It all began when Ahmed, who aspires to be an MIT Engineer, decided to make a digital clock and take it to school to show it to his teacher. By Wednesday, it was determined that no charges would be pressed against Mohamed. Ahmed was immediately looked upon as a terrorist with a potential bomb in his hands. He also told reporters during his multi-city grassroots tour that teens like Mohamed should be celebrated for their creative minds, not ridiculed. “I felt like I was a terrorist”. Apart from this, #IstandwithAhmed hashtag trended on social media.
Many of Mohamed’s supporters have decried his arrest as an act stemming from anti-Muslim bias and racism, while some believe the incident was a result of harsh zero-tolerance policies, which are common in schools across the nation.
Despite the claims made by Ahmed’s father, the boy was detained because of his name.
“The officers pretty quickly determined that they weren’t investigating an explosive device”, Police Chief Larry Boyd told MSNBC.
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Facebook’s Zuckerberg invited him for a visit, Twitter offered him an internship, and the corporation 3M voiced its support. Mohamed is a freshman at the school.
