In a glowing piece titled “ Clock boy Ahmed Mohamed on life in Qatar, what he’s learned about hate,” which announces Ahmed’s triumphant return to “hate”-filled Texas after having undergone 9 months of academic and religious training in the Islamic country, the clock/bomb hoax celebrity explains his goal: “I want to help change Texas for a better state, and I hope that not just for Texas, but the entire world.” Fortunately, others have taken an interest in Ahmed’s creative mind: Engineers at Google have invited him to see its Los Angeles facility, and NASA asked him to come check out the Mars rovers.Ahmed Mohamed, the “Clock Kid”- who got handcuffed for bringing a device to school that looked far more like a bomb than a clock, became the poster boy for the specter of “Islamophobia,” and then sued the city and school district for making him a celebrity-is returning, and we’re all going to be better for it. (He did clarify that the department wouldn’t be pursuing hoax charges against Ahmed.)Īccording to the Dallas Morning News, Ahmed vowed “never to take an invention to school again” after the incident-which is a real failure on the part of the educational system responsible for helping develop the talents and skills of this young man. At a press conference on Wednesday morning, Irving ISD officials declined to take questions, while an Irving PD spokesman explained that this is “an age where you can’t take things like that to school” and justified handcuffing the boy by claiming they had to do it to ensure that he didn’t jump out of the police car. North Texas is a microcosm of a problem that extends across Texas and the U.S.-that Muslims are frequently subject to threats, violence, and humiliation.Īuthorities in North Texas have yet to apologize to Ahmed, his family, or the broader community. That context is an important part Ahmed’s story. In 2011, in neighboring Arlington, the playground at a local mosque was burned as part of a hate crime. It’s not too far from Farmersville, where residents threatened to pour pig’s blood on a proposed Muslim cemetery this summer. It’s part of the same region as Dallas, where in March an Iraqi man was murdered outside of his apartment complex while photographing snow. Irving shares the Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex with Garland, where a “Draw Muhammad” contest in May became the scene of violence after shooters from out of state attacked the event (both were killed). But the clock, by Ahmed’s account and the account of the engineering teacher he showed it to, was built for the same reason inventors all over the world have built many things-just to do it. Indeed, if Ahmed had left his clock in a bathroom or under a car, and there had been some demonstrable intent that he intended to frighten people into thinking it was a bomb, those would be questions worth asking. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?”
“It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. “He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation.”Īsked what broader explanation the boy could have given, the spokesman explained:
“We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb,” McLellan said. But officers still didn’t believe Ahmed was giving them the whole story. And police have no reason to think it was dangerous. For building a clock and bringing it to school.Īs the Dallas Morning Newsreports, police-who even after Ahmed’s device was proven to be a clock without any dangerous elements whatsoever-told the paper they were still considering charging him with making a “hoax bomb,” and seemed exceedingly suspicious of the boy’s motives.Īhmed never claimed his device was anything but a clock, said police spokesman James McLellan. Not only did his school call the police because they thought that his clock looked like a bomb-despite the fact that, according to everyone involved, Ahmed made very clear to everyone that he showed his creation to that it was a clock-but even after the police got involved, and any confusion that school officials might have experienced was cleared up, he was still suspended for three days. And he promptly found himself in handcuffs for it.
But he did build himself a simple, homemade electronic clock that fit inside of his pencil case, consisting of a circuit board with wires that led to a digital display. It’s hard to say, because he’s only fourteen years old. All of the most impressive things in our world-computers, smart phones, television, telephones-are the result of people who liked to mess around with things.Īhmed Mohamed might turn out to be a great inventor, or he might not.
They build things without obvious utility, they take things apart and put them back together, they make things just to see if it’s possible to make them, and they show off their latest creations to the people around them.
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