Muslim teen who was arrested in the US on Wednesday after a teacher mistook his homemade clock for a bomb, received a pat in the back from the President. As criticism and condemnation poured in on social media for what was called one of the worst instances of Islamophonia and racial prejudice.
“Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great,” US President Barack Obama tweeted.
Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.
— President Obama (@POTUS) September 16, 2015
The photo of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed standing in handcuffs, wearing a t-shirt with the US space agency NASA’s logo, was retweeted thousands of times in a matter of hours and “#IStandWithAhmed” was the top trending hashtag on Twitter.
Among those voicing support for the boy was Hillary Clinton, who tweeted:
Assumptions and fear don't keep us safe—they hold us back. Ahmed, stay curious and keep building. https://t.co/ywrlHUw3g1
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 16, 2015
Facebook co-founder and CEO too supported him on Facebook.
You’ve probably seen the story about Ahmed, the 14 year old student in Texas who built a clock and was arrested when he…
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, 16 September 2015
According to Mohamed, he was just trying to impress his teachers when he brought the clock to MacArthur High school on Monday.
“My hobby is to invent stuff,” he said in a video posted on the paper’s website that was filmed in his electronics-filled bedroom. “I made a clock. It was really easy. I wanted to show something small at first… they took it wrong so I was arrested for a hoax bomb.”
Mohamed, who had loved robotics club in middle school and was hoping to find something similar in high school, said he didn’t get the reaction he was looking for from his engineering teacher.
“He was like, ‘That’s really nice,'” Mohamed said. “‘I would advise you not to show any other teachers.'”
But the alarm went off during his English class, and that teacher told him it looked like a bomb and confiscated the clock.
The school called police and Mohamed was taken away in handcuffs amid suspicion that he intended to frighten people with the device.
The aspiring inventor, who lives in Irving just outside Dallas, said police would not let him call his parents during a lengthy interrogation. Once released, he was suspended from school for three days.