By now, most of us are familiar with the plight of Ahmed Mohamed and his "BOMB" that was masquerading as a Clock that got him arrested, handcuffed, fingerprinted and suspended.
NOTE to the Irving school authorities and police who were repeatedly told by Ahmed that it was just a CLOCK – but dedmanded getting a "broader explanation" from the Muslim teen:
If you're told the item is a clock …
If it ticks like a clock …
If it tells time like a clock …
Then it's probably a clock!
BUT if your name is Mohamed …
AND you're brown-skinned
Then, of course, it's a BOMB!
And two extremely important questions for the Irving school authorities and police:
If you thought it was a bomb, why didn't you evacuate the high school?
What "broader explanation" than "It's a clock" do you think was available?
39 Responses to “9/17/15 – BUT If Your Name Is Mohamed …”
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I love the Obama Facebook and White House response where he has been encouraged to be an inventor and invited to meet with the WH science advisor and team. Thanks Nameless. There are also petitions, both faith-based and otherwise, to the school district and mayor to rescind their actions/apologize. I hope someone still has to share here.
Found this in my email:
"
Yesterday, a 14-year-old student named Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for bringing his engineering project (an electronic clock) to his high school. Officials mistook it for a bomb.
When I was growing up, my friends and I were fortunate to know how to use soldiering irons, circuit boards, and even a bit of duct tape when nothing else worked. We played, experimented, and learned through trial and error.
The best part? When I brought my work in, my teachers loved it. And that fed my desire to embrace science, engineering, and technology. That learning to play with technology — that curiosity — has helped me on every step of my journey so far.
That's why I’m so proud to see people across the country standing up for the innovation and intellectual curiosity that Ahmed has shown.
That includes the President.
And he's not the only one. Today, Dr. John Holdren — the President's top science advisor — reached out to Ahmed and personally invited him to come to join us at the White House Astronomy Night on October 19, where we'll bring together scientists, engineers, and visionaries from astronomy and the space industry, along with students and teachers. They'll share their experiences and spend an evening stargazing from the South Lawn.
We think Ahmed will fit right in.
That's because we think it's really important that kids with a passion for science and technology have the opportunities they need to reach for the stars (sometimes, that's literal).
It's why the President has prioritized broadening participation in science and technology to a more diverse pool of students.
It's why we regularly host kids from across the country at the White House Science Fair.
It's why we believe that the National Maker Faire is so important and why we are a nation of makers.
And it's why we're dedicated to telling the untold stories of some of the brightest minds in our country — to inspire young people to follow in their footsteps.
Ahmed, you inspire us — and we can't wait to meet you.
D.J.
DJ Patil
U.S. Chief Data Scientist
The White House
@DJ44
P.S. — Don’t forget your NASA shirt. I’ll be wearing mine."
And the conference in Canada to which he has been invited is October 22nd. So close together may be a good thing – perhaps he can do both in one trip. Be a lot better for him then going to school – at least the school he is now in.
Agreed
Apparently, this is what we are coming to expect from Texas, and it's pathetic that such ignorance prevails in what is supposed to be a learning institution! This gets worse with each passing incident, and should not be tolerated. In any school in this country. Period!
I love that he is being told he is important, and I have signed the petition. Muslims are now being treated the way Japanese-Americans were treated during WW2, minus the camps of course.
The camps will be next, for any immigrant, if the extremists on the right have their way.
As a result of this fiasco, Ahmed recieved an invite to the White House.I can't wait to hear the Right spin this one.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/white-house-invites-texas-student-arrested-over-homemade-clock/ar-AAenhJp?ocid=ansmsnnews11
The right will simply say that they knew all the time Obama was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. They've been spinning that one so long it's now probably over a hundred skeins in length.
Too, true
Links to some petitions regarding Ahmed – please add more if you know of any.
https://cms.fightforthefuture.org/ahmed/
https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/1434/sign_petition
http://act.faithfulamerica.org/sign/muslim_clock/
And one more:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/540/438/055/
Another from Dandelion:
https://www.standwithahmed.com/
Thanks for promoting on Care2 and all the petition links Joanne!
And I know it's ugly to say "I told you so," but in passing by HuffPo looking for something else, I saw Bristol Palin is slamming Obama's tweet as "divisive." Not exactly what I predicted, but close.
That apple sure doesn't fall from the tree!
Too true
Thanks for posting this, Joanne. I'm sure TomCat would have posted it too along with some explicit comment about how Republican both the school authorities and the police have handled this. Just when we thinh Republican racist paranoia can't get any worse they've broken another record in xenophobic and hatred driven madness. This hateful distrust, this fearmongering has reached the level of the Salem Witch hunts in 1692. And no apologies given for this gross misconduct against a teenager. Actually, we're way past Salem.
I agree Lona!
Update with Kleenex alert
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/17/1422125/-Texas-science-whiz-kid-gets-a-surprise-from-MIT-reflects-on-the-outpouring-of-support-VIDEO
Yup–needed a tissue but so wonderful that academia weighed in and that he's also finding local support.
fyi–scan of a Mother Jones email says they have an article, too
Ahmed Mohamed gets an invite from Canadian astronaunt Commander Chris Hadfield to join him in Toronto for Chris Hadfield's Generator science show where he can showcase his work and meet with other "science guys".
What happened to Ahmed should never have happened, anywhere, but it did and look at the opportunities opening up for him. Follow your dream Ahmed!
Glad the attention to this talented young man has gotten him international opportunities, too! That might get through even better than the White House with the Mayor and school district to rethink their treatment of him. Thanks Lynn
Republican bigots? Rethink? You do know "rethink" implies they thought in the first place? All that smoke is going to your head. Take care of yourself.
And while I was in the shower I just had a horrible thought. Do you suppose those – REPUBLICANS – would try to lock him up in October to keep him from going to the White House and Canada?
NOTE TO JIM PHILLIPS:
I approved yours & JLA's Comments that were in Moderation (they each had more than the three links, which TC setup as an automatic move to Moderation) more than 15 minutes ago.
JLA's has now posted – but I don't see yours. I went back to the Moderation panel and yours is no longer listed – so I have no idea where it's at in the ethernet. Maybe it just takes that long to appear.
Nameless, I saw it posted. Everything is OK.
Thanks! I see it was on an earlier one (9/16/15) of my posts.
Good to know.
Thanks for reminding me what the limit is–I've often done multiple comments to try to avoid…I was told one of my Wiki articles set TC's record a couple months back…
I'm so glad that MIT sent him An invitation! He is so proud of that! Even more than the invitation to the WH! I saw him on 'The View' this morning and he was ecstatic about the MIT invite! He said he was more excited about that and that he will be going there, ASAP !!!
Anyone that thinks a student brought a bomb to school, the VERY first thing to do would be to CALL THE BOMB SQUAD! They never called them! Instead, they took the so-called BOMB all over the place! Now, if I thought I had a student that brought me a bomb, I think I would be on the phone, STAT, to the Bomb Squad and leave the Damn thing sitting where it was and NOT TOUCH IT!
TEXASS! Gotta wonder where their brains are, all the time!
You are so right. Either they are totally incompetent to deal with an actual bomb – or they knew damned well all the time it wasn't a bomb – or both.
Some agreement with us:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/17/1422329/–They-didn-t-think-he-had-a-bomb
This was at the very top of the Daily Kos Recommended list that goes out in an email every day toanyone who wants it. Right now there are 454 comments which I didn't even start on. Just wanted to share ASAP.
Texas Progressives' email says their petition got 10,000 signatures that they will be hand delivering.
YAYYYY
Worth cheering about and I hope the press covers the petition delivery
The people who reported this poor child who made a clock (and then got him arrested) must have the intelligence of kumquats…. or possibly potatoes! What is WRONG with them?!!! Signing everything I can.
from Daily KOS:
I said: it's sad they thought that kid had a bomb.
She said: they didn't think he had a bomb.
I said: yes, they thought he made a bomb and even called the police.
She said: They just wanted to humiliate a little Muslim boy. They didn't think he had a bomb.
I said: Don't be a conspiracy theorist. They might be a little prejudiced, but I'm sure they thought he had a bomb.
She said: OK.
But they didn't evacuate the school, like you do when there's a bomb.
They didn't call a bomb squad – like you do when there's a bomb.
They didn't get as far away from him as possible, like you do when there's a bomb.
Then they put him and the clock in an office: not like you do when there's a bomb
Then they waited with him for the police to arrive, and then they put the clock in the same car as the police.
Then they took pictures of it.
I saw that, too…also a Daily Kos on the 7 other children who brought clocks to school with different results…