Fouteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed showed up to his Irving, Texas school Tuesday with a homemade clock he was excited to show his teacher. But what he didn't expect was to end the day in handcuffs, suspected of making a bomb.
Trouble began when Mohamed arrived to school with the clock — a digital display inside a hologram case connected to a circuit board and power supply — and presented it to his engineering teacher. The device was later confiscated in his English class, according to the Indepenent, after his teacher told him it looked like a bomb. Mohamed was plucked from class and questioned by police officers, then taken to a juvenile detention center and fingerprinted.
He told the Dallas Morning News, the whole experience made him feel like he "wasn't a human" but a "criminal."
So much for encouaging young people to take an interest in knowledge. Here's the full interview.
The Internet felt similarly. By Wednesday, social media was buzzing worldwide with support for Mohamed and criticism for what many deemed a blatantly Islamophobic action on the part of the Irving school. The hashtag #IStandwithAhmed took off globally Wednesday, with users pointing out the giant role race and religion often play in everyday life in America.
Have a look at some of the responses below.
#IStandWithAhmed because Islamophobia is a major part of American and European culture and creativity should be rewarded, not persecuted
— Anton (@_notnA_) September 16, 2015
#IStandWithAhmed because intelligence is being viewed as terrorism.
— reine de beauté (@sanihamody) September 16, 2015
Give a kid a gun, nobody bats an eye. A young Muslim boy makes a clock - arrested and interrogated about bomb making. #IStandWithAhmed
— Marie (@WheelsofJoyPics) September 16, 2015
Islamophobia + post 9/11 fearmongering will push students to more cynicism and away from STEM fields. #IStandWithAhmed #RealTimeChem
— Olefin (@OlefinTheHusky) September 16, 2015
#IStandWithAhmed because I'm fed up of naturally brown skin being synonymous with being a criminal
— Cahrie Bee-Ann (@FreeSpyryted) September 16, 2015
'A broader explanation'? Is it just me that has been using my clock for time keeping purposes? #IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/vnvsCTPfpO
— Rachel Harvey (@RachelJHarvey) September 16, 2015
Don't EVER try tell me it's not about race or religion. #IStandWithAhmed
— Your Favourite Creep (@HollaChala) September 16, 2015
#IStandWithAhmed because he is clearly smarter than Rick Perry and George W. Bush put together.
— Alex Van Beek (@TheVanBeek) September 16, 2015
Both these pictures were taken in the same city. This is America everyone. #IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/Fm1tXfJPjy
— aras (@sereningly) September 16, 2015
So creativity and innovation is terrorism if you have colour in your skin #IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/qDezMxszPo
— Afrah (@NorthernAttic) September 16, 2015
add 'dont invent things' to the ever growing list of things you cant do while being black/Muslim in america. #IStandWithAhmed
— Samira (@_abderahman) September 16, 2015
