Washington, Sep 17: US President Barack Obama invited a Muslim schoolboy to the White House after he was arrested and dragged off in handcuffs for bringing a homemade clock to class.
Obama congratulated 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed on his skills and issued a presidential invitation, in what amounts to a pointed rebuke to school and police officials who precipitated his arrest.
Irving MacArthur High School student Ahmed Mohamed, 14, poses for a photo at his home in Irving, Texas on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015. Mohamed was arrested and interrogated by Irving Police officers on Monday after bringing a homemade clock to school. Police don't believe the device is dangerous, but say it could be mistaken for a fake explosive. He was suspended from school for three days, but he has not been charged.
"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," the president tweeted.
The teen was led out of his Texas school after a teacher mistook his homemade digital clock for a bomb, prompting accusations of Islamophobia and an online backlash.
A photo of Ahmed standing in handcuffs while wearing a t-shirt with the US space agency NASA's logo was retweeted thousands of times in a matter of hours and "#IStandWithAhmed" was the top trending hashtag on Twitter.
#IStandWithAhmed
Social media exploded Wednesday with messages of support for Ahmed Mohamed, who was detained by police after an English teacher thought a homemade clock he brought to class looked like a bomb.
On Tuesday night, the Dallas Morning News reported that police were considering pressing charges against Ahmed over what authorities in Irving described as a “hoax bomb.” Officials announced Wednesday that were declining to pursue charges.
By Wednesday morning, the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed was trending on Twitter, as users tweeted in solidarity with the tinkering teen — and expressed outrage over what they believe was a case of anti-Muslim discrimination.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also extended an invite to Ahmed.
“The future belongs to people like Ahmed,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. “Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I’d love to meet you. Keep building.”
Ahmed brought the clock — which featured a circuit board and a power supply wired to a digital display — to MacArthur High School on Monday. He said he took it out of his backpack to show his teacher after it beeped during class.
“She was like, it looks like a bomb,” Ahmed told the newspaper. “I told her, ‘It doesn’t look like a bomb to me.’”
The teacher confiscated the device, and the freshman was pulled out of class and sent to the principal’s office, where four police officers questioned him.
Despite the 9th grader’s repeated insistence that the device was not a bomb, Ahmed was handcuffed and driven to a juvenile detention center, where he was met by his parents.
Ahmed’s father was understandably furious that he was detained. “He just wants to invent good things for mankind,” Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed told the paper. “But because his name is Mohamed and because of September 11, I think my son got mistreated.”
Mohamed said his son received a three-day suspension from the school.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, America’s largest Muslim civil liberties advocacy organization, said it is reviewing the case. The family said it is considering legal action.
At a press conference Wednesday, Irving police chief Larry Boyd announced that no charges would be filed against the boy.
“The student showed the device to a teacher, who was concerned that it was possibly the infrastructure for a bomb,” Boyd said. “The follow-up investigation revealed the device apparently was a homemade experiment, and there's no evidence to support the perception he intended to create alarm.”
Lesley Weaver, Irving school district spokeswoman, defended the school’s decision to detain him.
“We will always take necessary precautions to protect our students and to keep our school community as safe as possible,” Weaver said.
The chief insisted that religion did not play a role in Ahmed’s arrest.
“We live in an age where you can’t take things like that to school,” Boyd said. “Of course, we’ve seen across our country horrific things happen, so we have to err on the side of caution.”
At the White House, press secretary Josh Earnest said it was too early to say if "bias" was involved, but added: "This is an instance where you have people who have otherwise dedicated their lives to teach our children who failed in that effort, potentially because of some things in their conscience and the power of stereotypes."
At an afternoon news conference outside his family's home, Ahmed said he plans to transfer out of MacArthur High School, and offered advice to fellow tinkerers.
"Don't let people change who you are, even if you get a consequence for it," he said. "I suggest you still show it to people, at least show them your talent."
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