A boy was arrested for inventing a clock that his teacher mistook as an explosive device.
Ahmed Mohammed, 14 years old, took his homemade clock to MacArthur High in Texas as a school project.
Despite repeatedly telling teachers that the suspicious device was in fact a clock, the student was still brought to the principal's office to be interrogated and hand-cuffed.
According to Ahmed, his teacher initially told him "that's really nice" when he first showed his project and was advised "not to show" the clock to "any other teachers."
But when the alarm went off in another lesson, Ahmed was asked to bring the clock over to his teacher who allegedly said "looks like a bomb."
Ahmed was then sent to the principal's office with five police officials waiting. One official even looked at him and said, "Yup. That's who I thought it was."
The student was suspended since that day although the police ruled that he won't face any charges.
According to his father Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, the suspicion surrounding his son is caused by Islamaphobia.
"He just wants to invent good things for mankind, but because his name is Mohamed and because of September 11, I think my son got mistreated," Mohamed told Dallas News.
Upon knowing the incident, President Barack Obama tweeted his support for Ahmed and even invited him to the White House. "Cool clock, Ahmed," POTUS wrote. "Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great."
Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.
— President Obama (@POTUS) September 16, 2015
Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg also expressed his admiration for the young inventor on his Facebook post. "Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed," he wrote, adding, "Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I'd love to meet you. Keep building."
Ahmed thanked all his supporters by posting a photo of him wearing a NASA shirt.
Thank you fellow supporters. We can ban together to stop this racial inequality and prevent this from happening again pic.twitter.com/fBlmckoafU — Ahmed Mohamed (@IStandWithAhmed) September 16, 2015
