Irving, Texas: Encouragement poured in from across the nation for a 14-year-old Muslim boy whose homemade electronic clock led to his detention and suspension from school, with President Barack Obama, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and a Nasa scientist among those offering support.
As word spread that Ahmad Mohammad had been placed in handcuffs after coming to class with the clock that officials at his suburban Dallas school thought resembled a bomb, the teen became a star on social media, with the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed tweeted more than 1 million times by Wednesday night.
On Wednesday, Texas officials announced that Ahmad would not be charged.
Wearing the now-famous Nasa T-shirt, Ahmad told reporters he was pleased that the charges have gone away. He said he learnt an important lesson that applies to everyone.
“Go for it,” Ahmad told reporters at a televised news conference. “Don’t let people change who you are even if you get a consequence for it.”
Ahmad also thanked his backers who helped his case go viral.
“Thank you to all my supporters on Twitter, Facebook, all social media,” said the ninth-grader. “Thank you all for helping me. I would never have got this far if it wasn’t for you guys.”
Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd defended his officers’ response but said later investigation showed that no criminal counts were warranted against the boy, who could have been charged with instigating a fake bomb hoax.
“We live in an age where you can’t take things like that to school,” Boyd said at a televised news conference Wednesday morning. The clock looked “suspicious in nature,” but there was no evidence that Ahmad meant to cause any alarm so the case “is considered closed.”
He insisted that the reaction to the homemade clock “would have been the same regardless” of Ahmad’s Muslim religion and the turbulence in the Mideast.
But Ahmad’s father, Mohammad Al Hassan Mohammad, said he was unconvinced. He told the Dallas Morning News, which broke the story, that his son “just wants to invent good things for mankind. But because his name is Mohammad and because of Sept. 11, I think my son got mistreated.”
“God Bless America,” the father told reporters at the news conference.
Many also took to social media to criticise police and officials at MacArthur High School, suspecting them of overreacting because of the boy’s religion. Officials say the boy’s religion was not a factor.
In a tweet, Obama called Ahmad’s clock “cool” and said more kids should be inspired like him to enjoy science, because “it’s what makes America great.”
Ahmad was invited to participate in an astronomy night the White House is organising sometime next month with premier scientists.
In a post to his site, Zuckerberg said, “Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause.”
“Ahmad, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I’d love to meet you,” Zuckerberg posted. “Keep building.”
Bobak Ferdowsi, a science planner engineer on Nasa’s Cassini space probe to Saturn, joined in. In a tweet, Ferdowsi said, “I can’t imagine if be working @nasa today if anything like this had ever happened to me.” He later tweeted, “Hey Ahmad, give me a call in a couple years. We could always use smart, curious & creative people.”
Ahmad’s father, Mohammad Al Hassan Mohammad, a Sudanese immigrant, said at a press conference in front of his family’s home that he was moved by the support for his son. He said Ahmad is an electronics whizz who repairs the family’s clocks and phones.
“I am grateful to the United States of America,” he said, attributing the widespread support to “something that was touching the heart for everybody.”
Ahmad was pulled from class Monday and taken to a detention Centre after showing the digital clock to teachers at his school in Irving.
Ahmad was still suspended by school officials. He said Wednesday that his family is looking for a new school for him after he was placed in handcuffs.
“I built the clock to impress my teacher, but when I showed it to her, she thought it was a threat to her. So it was really sad she took the wrong impression of it,” Ahmad said at the press conference.
School district spokeswoman Lesley Weaver declined to confirm the suspension, citing privacy laws. Weaver insisted school officials were concerned with student safety and not the boy’s faith.
Police have an “outstanding relationship” with the Muslim community in Irving, Boyd said, adding that he planned to meet the boy’s father to address any concerns.
This spring, the city council endorsed one of several bills under discussion in the Texas Legislature that would forbid judges from rulings based on “foreign laws” — legislation opponents view as unnecessary and driven by anti-Muslim sentiment.
