A social media storm followed the story of Ahmed Mohamed's arrest over bringing a clock to his school in Irving, Texas.
To catch you up — the 14-year-old showed up to his classes Monday with a homemade clock to show to his engineering teacher. But the clock's built-in alarm drew the attention of his English teacher, who thought it looked like a bomb. By the end of the day, Mohamed was being handcuffed by police officers and questioned about whether he brought an improvised explosive to school.
For th rational world, this was the depressing result of deep Islamophobia from pretty much everyone involved in the incident.
The outcry sprouted the hashtag #IStandwithAhmed and sent it trending in cities across the world Wednesday, with users pointing out how differently the situation might have gone had Mohamed been a non-Muslim, white student. Here's a tweet that summed up the madness pretty well.
Both these pictures were taken in the same city. This is America everyone. #IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/Fm1tXfJPjy
— aras (@sereningly) September 16, 2015
By the end of Wednesday, celebrities were getting behind #IStandwithAhmed, too. Then US President Barack Obama entered the Twittersphere.
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 (@POTUS) September 16, 2015
Obama was joined by others — Hillary Clinton and Mark Zuckerberg to name a few.
Then, during a press conference in Irving Wednesday, Mohamed, who is still suspected from school but has had the legal charges dropped, spoke up himself.
"It made me really happy to see everyone support me on social media," he said. "Im pleased that they're part of the movement to stop what's happening not just to me, but to other people all around the world."
He said he'd like to take Obama up on the White House visit and is on the lookout for a new school, too. Watch the full interview below. Via PBS.
