An incident that happened at a Texas high school a few weeks ago has struck a nerve
across the country, and it has even prompted President Obama to speak his mind on
Twitter and recognize Ahmed Mohamed as an inventor that helps “make America great”.
FaceBook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton also showed
their support for Ahmed on social media.
The 9th grader recently started attending MacArthur High School this fall,
and has a big interest in creating devices from radios to blue tooth speakers. One
Sunday night, Ahmed decided to put together a small clock to present to his
engineering teacher. Ahmed’s teacher told him it was nice, but advised him not to
show any other teacher. By the end of the day, there were three complaints sent to
the main office by teachers about the clock.
Ahmed’s English teacher confiscated the home-built clock after hearing a
series of beeping throughout class, and told Ahmed that it looked like a bomb. He
told his teacher it was just a clock, but later that day Ahmed was questioned by
police and arrested at school. Ahmed told MSNBC in an interview “I felt like all the
names I was called”. The idea that ‘Islamphobia’ motivated the arrest triggered the online
world to speak out and stand by Ahmed, in hopes to help end racial profiling against
Muslims. Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd made a statement that relieved Ahmed of any and
all charges of wrongdoing, and stated that there was no evidence that the student had any
poor intentions.