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Ahmed Mohamed is a 14-year-old student of MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, who was taken into custody by police and suspended from school after bringing a digital clock that he put together to show to his engineering teacher. The case sparked debates on racial profiling and Islamophobia, and Mohamed received support from many sources, including U.S. President Barack Obama, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and retired astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Background

Mohamed comes from a Muslim family and is the son of Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, an immigrant from Sudan who has twice sought to be elected the Sudanese president.

Detained for questioning

On September 15, 2015, Mohamed, a 14-year-old freshman at MacArthur High School, assembled a digital clock and brought it to school to show it to his his engineering teacher. His teacher, upon seeing the clock, said, "that's really nice", but advised him to keep the device in his backpack for the rest of the school day. However, the clock later beeped in his English class, and the teacher requested to see it. The English teacher then reported him to the School Principal's office, and the police were called. The principal and a police officer then took him out of class and led him to a room where four other officers were waiting. After interrogating him for about an hour and a half, he was taken into custody for "possession of a hoax bomb", escorted out of the school in handcuffs, taken to a juvenile detention center, and fingerprinted, before being released to his parents. According to Mohamed, he was not allowed to contact his family during the questioning and he was threatened by the principal with being expelled unless he would sign a written statement. Mohamed was also suspended from school for 3 days. Even after releasing him, the police refused to accept that he only built the device as a clock and did not intend it to appear to be a bomb, saying, "He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation."

State law dictates that it is illegal to possess a "hoax bomb" with an intent to "make another believe that the hoax bomb is an explosive or incendiary device" or to "cause alarm or reaction of any type by an official of a public safety agency or volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies." Although Mohamed was never formally charged with any crime, many of his supporters have speculated that his interrogation and subsequent transfer by police to a juvenile center for processing is an example of Islamophobia in the United States.Others, such as Wall Street Journal commentator James Taranto, have said Mohamed's mistreatment is not uncommon; he points to a similar story from 2001 in New Jersey, in which a nine-year-old boy was suspended for a week and received a year of probation for creating a fake bomb. Irving, Texas reportedly has had a long history of Islamophobia and racial profiling.

Responses

Reactions

After the initial report by The Dallas Morning News caught his attention, tech blogger Anil Dash created a form online for people to send supportive messages and thoughts on how to encourage Mohamed's creativity. Dash was among the earliest to widely publicize the story about Mohamed through social media to his more than 500,000 Twitter followers, and first to tweet the photo of Mohamed handcuffed while wearing a faded NASA T-shirt.

Mayor Beth Van Duyne defended the actions of the police and the Irving Independent School District, stating that they were following the procedure set when a potential threat of criminal act is discovered. The MacArthur High School stated that Mohamed was welcome to return after the completion of his three-day suspension but defended its actions.

Following the situation, Mohamed received support from President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Mark Zuckerberg. President Obama wrote on Twitter, "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", and Zuckerberg invited him to the headquarters of Facebook. The hashtag '#IStandWithAhmed' began trending on Twitter and other social media. Ahmed and his family announced that he was going to the White House for an annual Astronomy Night, in which he would receive the opportunity to meet other aspiring young scientists. Google invited him to attend its science fair, urging him to bring the clock along, while Twitter offered him a chance to intern with them. Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield invited Mohamed to his science show in Toronto. According to social analytics site Topsy, close to a million people sent out tweets with the supportive hashtag #IstandwithAhmed in less than 24 hours.

George Takei, the Japanese-American actor who played Sulu on Star Trek, penned an open letter to Mohamed, offering his support and comparing the cause of being taken into custody by police to the same mindset that lead to the Japanese internment in the United States during World War II.

After the incident, Richard Dawkins accused Mohamed and his family of staging a hoax in a number of postings on Twitter, writing that photographs of the clock showed that it was simply clock parts randomly shuffled together in a pencil case, and that Mohamed's intention may have been to get arrested. After his opinion was criticized, Dawkins backtracked to some extent from his criticism and conceded that the police were wrong to arrest Mohamed.

Criticism of laws and stereotypes

In a debate among Presidential candidates of the Republican Party, Bobby Jindal said that he did not think that a 14-year-old should ever get arrested for bringing a clock to school, but defended the police who were "worried about security and safety issues". Gawker compared the situation to various other instances of students bringing homemade clocks to school and not receiving any punitive action, as well as incident in 2002 when a student made an inert bomb and carried it to school but was not suspended.

Techdirt writer Tim Cushing wrote that the Texas "hoax bomb" law Mohamed was accused under was too loosely worded, as a mere reaction by a public safety official was enough to fall under it (regardless of whether he had intentionally meant to do so), and that it could theoretically apply to other legitimate devices (such as phones and road flares) because they can "cause alarm or reaction of any type" from a public safety officer. At the same time, he wrote that the school itself may have also violated the same law, as they presented the clock to police as potentially being an explosive device.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that the incident "is a good illustration of how pernicious stereotypes can prevent even good-hearted people who have dedicated their lives to educating young people from doing the good work that they set out to do", and that Ahmed was invited the White House South Lawn for Astronomy Night on October 19.

Terri Burke, Executive Director of the ACLU of Texas, stated, "Islamophobia, and probably racism, certainly played a role in Ahmed's ordeal, but the fact is overzealous administrators, zero-tolerance policies, and law enforcement officers ill-equipped to deal with schoolchildren have compromised educational environments throughout the country. Ahmed suffered through a terrifying, traumatizing, and unjust ordeal. Yet because of the mass exposure of what he endured, he's received invitations to the White House, Facebook headquarters, and the Google science fair. For too many others – the ones whose stories won't go viral – the possibility of the American nightmare remains too real."

References

1. "Irving resident makes his second bid for election as President of Sudan". North Dallas Gazette. Houston. February 23, 2015. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
2. ^ Selk, Avi (September 15, 2015). "Irving 9th-grader arrested after taking homemade clock to school: 'So you tried to make a bomb?'". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on September 16, 2015. Retrieved September 20, 2015. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
3. "Irving Police Chief Defends Response to Ahmed Mohamed's Clock". NY Times. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
4. "Ahmed Mohamed's parents serve pizza to a crowd of reporters outside their house". Yahoo News. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
5. "Muslim teen cuffed over clock mistaken for bomb speaks out". CBS News. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
6. "Was Ahmed Mohamed arrested because he is Muslim?". Al-Jazeera. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
7. "Muslim teen Ahmed Mohamed creates clock, shows teachers, gets arrested". CNN. September 16, 2015. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
8. Abby Philip, Sarah Kaplan (September 16, 2015). "'They thought it was a bomb': 9th-grader arrested after bringing a home-built clock to school". Washington Post. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
9. Glenza, J., and Woolf, N., Texas Schoolboy Arrested over Clock to Visit Obama as Authorities Defend Action, The Guardian, September 17, 2015.
10. O'Malley, Nick (September 17, 2015). "Ahmed Mohamed's handmade clock led to his arrest, then White House invite". Sydney Morning Herald. Washington DC. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
11. "Sec. 46.08. HOAX BOMBS". Texas Constitution and Statutes. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
12. Wang, Frances (September 16, 2015). "No Charges For Ahmed Mohamed, Teen Arrested After Bringing Homemade Clock to School". NBC News. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
13. Taranto, James (September 18, 2015). "Stand With Ahmed: But against the 'Islamophobia' myth-makers". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
14. "The history of anti-Islam controversy in Ahmed Mohamed's Texas city". The Washinton Post. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
15. McKay, Tom (September 16, 2015). "Texas City Where Ahmed Mohamed Was Arrested Has a Long, Disturbing History of Islamophobia". Mic.com. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
16. "Stand with Ahmed against Islamophobia". CNN. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
17. Kaplan, Sarah; Phillip, Abby (September 16, 2015). "Why some Muslims don't want Ahmed Mohamed's blackness to be ignored". Washington Post. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
18. Vara, Vauhini (September 17, 2015). "How Will Ahmed Mohamned's Story Play Out in Texas". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
19. Ferner, Matt (September 16, 2015). "Irving Mayor Defends School And Cops, Doesn't Apologize For Arrest Of Muslim Teen Over Clock". Huffington Post. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
20. Pelletiere, Nicole (September 17, 2015). "Ahmed Mohamed's High School Says He's Welcome Back, But Supports Teacher Who Reported Clock". ABC News. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
21. "Handcuffed for Making Clock, Ahmed Mohamed, 14, Wins Time With Obama". New York Times. Houston. September 16, 2015. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
22. Thomas, Dexter (September 16, 2015). "#IStandWithAhmed lesson: Curiosity is for white kids". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
23. Guynn, Jessica (September 17, 2015). "Facebook, Google roll out welcome mat to Ahmed Mohamed". USA Today. San Francisco. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
24. "Chris Hadfield invites Ahmed Mohamed to Toronto science show". CBCNews. September 16, 2015. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
25. ^ "How student Ahmed Mohamed went from suspected bomb maker to overnight celebrity". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
26. Kurp, Josh. "'Keep On Keeping On': George Takei Wrote Ahmed Mohamed An Inspiring Note". Uproxx. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
27. Vale, Paul, "Richard Dawkins Accuses Ahmed Mohamed Of Committing 'Fraud'", Huffington Post, 20 September 2015
28. Chen, Cathaleen, "Was concern over Ahmed Mohamed wholly unjustified? Some critics aren't so sure", Christian Science Monitor/Yahoo! News, 20 September 2015
29. Condon, Stephanie (September 16, 2015). "Early Republican debate turns to Ahmed Mohamed, Kim Davis". CBS News. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
30. Kush, Andy (September 16, 2015). "7 Kids Not Named Mohamed Who Brought Homemade Clocks to School And Didn't Get Arrested". Gawker. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
31. Cushing, Tim. "Here's The Ridiculous Texas Law That Allows Law Enforcement To Pretend A Digital Clock Is A Hoax Bomb". Techdirt. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
32. "White House Astronomy Night: A Celebration of Science, Technology, and Space". The White House. Archived from the original on September 17, 2015. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
33. Burke, Terri. "Let's Assume the Kids (and Ahmed) Are Alright, Not Criminals". The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 19, 2015.

External links

• MacArthur Student Will Not Face Charges Related To Device (Archive) - Irving Police Department

• 2010s

• 2000s births
• Living people
• American Muslims
• 2015 in Texas
• Islamophobia in the United States
• People from Irving, Texas
• American people of Sudanese descent
• 2015 controversies