A 14-year-old boy was arrested by police in Texas after a homemade clock he wanted to show his school teachers was mistaken for a bomb.
Ahmed Mohamed told US media that he had made a clock at home and brought it into MacArthur High School in Irving to show his engineering teacher. Another teacher saw it and, concerned that it looked like a bomb, alerted the school authorities who called police.
Ahmed has since been invited to Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg and even the White House by President Obama!
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, September 16, 2015
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 (@POTUS44) September 16, 2015
Twitter users have also come out in force, with hashtag #IStandWithAhmed trending globally. Here are a selection of the tweets:
Most kids who made a homemade clock in 20 minutes would be hailed as Jimmy Neutron. Muslim Kid? Potential bomb maker. Sad. #IStandWithAhmed
— Wajahat "Social Distance Yourself" Ali (@WajahatAli) September 16, 2015
https://twitter.com/googlescifair/status/644219471469629440
In solidarity with @IStandWithAhmed CAIR-Chicago staff brought our clocks to work too. #IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/NK9CWhyfru
— CAIR-Chicago (@cairchicago) September 16, 2015
Smart 14 yr old wearing glasses & a NASA shirt, with dream of going to MIT. If white= genius kid. If brown= genuine threat. #IstandwithAhmed
— Sudanese Optimist (@SudanOptimist) September 16, 2015
#IStandWithAhmed and I hope you do too. He & his community deserve apologies from all the staff that wronged them. pic.twitter.com/IXTmoxPmg8
— Dennis Bonilla (@harbingeralpha) September 16, 2015
https://twitter.com/Court3lizabeth/status/644013030196445184
https://twitter.com/Payitforward87/status/644115712764694528
Teenager brings in homemade clock = bright future in robotics. Muslim kid does the same = he has created Ultron. #IStandWithAhmed
— Wajahat "Social Distance Yourself" Ali (@WajahatAli) September 16, 2015
https://twitter.com/FarhanKVirk/status/644089200657088512
society is teaching a young mind that no matter what he goes to accomplish, people will only see the color of his skin #IStandWithAhmed
— jenny (@y0jenny) September 16, 2015
