Called a ‘bombmaker’ and ‘terrorist’ in middle school.By Raif Karerat
Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old boy who was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school, wants to transfer from his Irving, Texas school. He also wants to go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for college.
Ahmed’s family has not yet picked a new school for Ahmed. He is exploring options inside and outside of the country, reported CNN.
In an interview late Wednesday with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Ahmed described how he was pulled out of class at MacArthur High School by his principal and five police officers and taken to a room where he was questioned for about an hour and a half.
He said he asked the adults if he could call his parents.
“They told me ‘No, you can’t call your parents,'” Ahmed said. “‘You’re in the middle of an interrogation at the moment.’ They asked me a couple of times, ‘Is it a bomb?’ and I answered a couple of times, ‘It’s a clock.'”
In middle school, Ahmed said, he had been called “bombmaker” and a “terrorist.”
“Just because of my race and my religion,” he continued, adding that when he walked into the room where he was questioned, an officer reclined in a chair and remarked, “That’s who I thought it was.”
“I took it to mean he was pointing at me for what I am, my race,” the young innovator explained.
When a photo of Ahmed in handcuffs was posted online, it ignited a veritable firestorm throughout social media spheres. From the uproar emerged a plethora of support, including messages from some notable modern luminaries.
Mark Zuckerberg wrote:
You’ve probably seen the story about Ahmed, the 14 year old student in Texas who built a clock and was arrested when he took it to school.
Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed.
Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I’d love to meet you. Keep building.
Hillary Clinton poignantly said:
Assumptions and fear don’t keep us safe—they hold us back. Ahmed, stay curious and keep building.
Ahmed even seemed to have made an impression in the West Wing, with President Barack Obama reaching out to the teen as well:
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.
Meanwhile, one of the largest Muslim groups in Texas said Thursday that it does not fault police and school officials who handcuffed and suspended Ahmed.
Instead, Khalid Hamideh of the Islamic Association of North Texas blamed political leaders for espousing inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric and creating a “climate of fear,” reported the Associated Press.
“We’re not pointing a finger at the school district or the police department,” Hamideh said. “Under the current climate that exists in this country, you can’t really blame them because when they see something like that, they have to react.”