Meet Ahmed Mohamed, a 9th-grader in Irving, Texas now trending worldwide after the Dallas Morning News reported he was arrested at his high school on Monday for bringing what teachers thought was a bomb to school. The bomb, however, was a allegedly just a homemade clock that Ahmed was showing off to those same teachers that called in the police.
From the Dallas Morning News:
Ahmed Mohamed — who makes his own radios and repairs his own go-kart — hoped to impress his teachers when he brought a homemade clock to MacArthur High on Monday.
Instead, the school phoned police about Ahmed’s circuit-stuffed pencil case.
So the 14-year-old missed the student council meeting and took a trip in handcuffs to juvenile detention. His clock now sits in an evidence room. Police say they may yet charge him with making a hoax bomb — though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it’s a clock.
Here’s Ahmed (in a NASA T-shirt) as he was taken away from the school in handcuffs:
#IStandWithAhmed trending worldwide in support of 14yr old student arrested for taking a homemade clock into school. pic.twitter.com/RfyyimyGrZ
— CAGE (@UK_CAGE) September 16, 2015
The hashtag #IStandWithAhmed is trending this morning with many assuming Ahmed’s Muslim faith had something to do with the arrest:
In response, #IStandWithAhmed is now going viral around the world as people express their support. Image: @Trendsmap pic.twitter.com/ucYWRTdgNr
— AJ+ (@ajplus) September 16, 2015
https://twitter.com/Montel_Williams/status/644032139860668417
CAIR-DFW disputes allegations and arrest of 14 yo Irving student and budding inventor…. http://t.co/ZvuTYO6Qlt
— CAIR-DFW (@cairdfw) September 16, 2015
https://twitter.com/DMJreports/status/644093625878622208
More than 24.9K tweets about #IStandWithAhmed overnight. Student brought homemade clock to school. @NBCDFW pic.twitter.com/dRTH8hFDpY
— Ellen Bryan (@_EllenBryan) September 16, 2015
@LocalJoost EVERYONE is reaching out to him. We need to reach out to the police also and stop this blatant Islamophobia. #IStandWithAhmed
— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) September 16, 2015
My kids are makers, and we're proud to make stuff. #IStandWithAhmed. Let's not crush his desire to make things.
— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) September 16, 2015
Teenager brings in homemade clock = bright future in robotics. Muslim kid does the same = he has created Ultron. #IStandWithAhmed
— Wajahat "Abu Khadija" Ali (@WajahatAli) September 16, 2015
Most kids who made a homemade clock in 20 minutes would be hailed as Jimmy Neutron. Muslim Kid? Potential bomb maker. Sad. #IStandWithAhmed
— Wajahat "Abu Khadija" Ali (@WajahatAli) September 16, 2015
He was wearing a NASA t-shirt. @missanabeem on #IStandWithAhmed https://t.co/0RxBQyCbUd
— Heather Timmons (@HeathaT) September 16, 2015
Florida, stand down. Texas just set the new gold standard for American stupid. #IStandWithAhmed #HelpAhmedMake
— Mark Joyella ?️? (@standupkid) September 16, 2015
We’ll obviously find out more about Ahmed in the coming days, but rather than jumping to conclusions that this only happened because Ahmed is a Muslim, let’s not forget that schools suspend kids all the time for even sillier reasons. Like Nerf darts:
‘Dumb’: 11-year-old suspended for having ‘mini-shank’ made from Nerf bullet at school
Or a “Pop-Tart” gun:
Florida’s ‘Pop-Tart bill’ would ease schools’ zero-tolerance gun policies
Not Islamophobic, just stupid?
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