![]() ![]() But when Ahmed showed it to his engineering teacher, his teacher’s response was “That’s really nice. The picture the police released shows of Ahmed's clock-made of a metal box with a tiger hologram on it, a circuit board, and a battery wired to an LED that had an hour and minute digital display-was a simple, unassuming device. And those who do not understand technology fear it as well. As Marcus Wohlson at Wired put it, this was “ perfect shitstorm of Islamophobia and technophobia.” Those who do not understand Islam vilify and fear it. We’re happy to hear that Ahmed has a lawyer (the details of his detention and interrogation without a lawyer are concerning, to say the least) and that he’s working with the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Texas.īut there’s also more than racism here. That’s reinforced by the fact that the mayor of Irving, Beth Van Duyne, is well known for spreading outrageous fears about the so-called spread of Shariah law. We are among the many who believe that what happened that what happened to Ahmed was the direct result of his skin color and name. In other words, he did it for the same reason hackers and makers across the globe explore and create. He did it because he’s smart and curious. He did it because he was proud of his work. I wanted to show something small at first.” He did it because he could. 11, I think my son got mistreated.Īhmed himself explains what he did in a way anyone who has ever had the pleasure of building or fixing something themselves can empathize with: “ I built a clock. But because his name is Mohamed and because of Sept. He just wants to invent good things for mankind. As his father Ahmed Elhassan Mohamed said: You don’t have to be a technologist or hacker to understand why Ahmed soldered together a home-made gadget and brought it to school to show his engineering teacher. That’s how police spokesman James McLellan justified pulling Ahmed out of class, interrogating him, parading him through his school hallways in handcuffs, and booking him for possession of a “hoax bomb.” The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody? And it’s not a crime just because law enforcement or even teachers don’t understand technology. Perhaps we need to clarify that for anyone who wants to follow the example of Irving, Texas: innovation is not a crime-no matter what your religion or skin color. Those are the words of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, a smart young student who is also Muslim, and who was arrested just for bringing a home made clock to school to show to his teachers.ĮFF has said before, and we will say it again: innovation is not a crime. All rights reserved.It made me feel like I wasn’t human. The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2015 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. Someone should get them a nice big clock. Hey, you’d be exhausted too, trying to schedule visits to just about everyone from the White House to Silicon Valley.Īnd speaking of exhausting, who’s gonna have to read through and verify all those signatures? Sounds pretty time-consuming too. ![]() He wasn’t available to local media all day Friday. His suspension for bringing his homemade clock to school on Monday is over, but he told NewsFix Thursday that he wouldn’t be going back to MacArthur High. It also doesn’t sound like Ahmed will ever be an Irving ISD student again, either. They hadn’t had a chance to review the petition, but reminded reporters that the teacher followed proper procedure and had responded to the device, not the student. The message is simple, “Reverse Ahmed Mohamed’s suspension, publicly apologize to the Mohamed family, and reevaluate your disciplinary policies.”īut it doesn’t sound like the district is going to be apologizing. That’s how many online signatures are on a petition delivered to Irving ISD Friday. Here’s another example - 15,000 names deep. WASHINGTON - (CNN) So, we all know how popular Ahmed Mohamed has been this week. ![]()
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