Today is turning around nicely for Ahmed Mohamed, the ninth grader in Irving, Texas arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school. President Obama and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, among other people, would like to hang out with him. Also, in a move that may be related to all this publicity, Irving police have announced that he will not be criminally charged.
Mohamed was also given well wishes by Hillary Clinton and Google’s “chief education evangelist,” among thousands of others:
Meanwhile, Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd announced at a press conference that the boy will not be charged, saying that although the device appeared “suspicious in nature,” the police determined that it was “apparently was a homemade experiment, and there’s no evidence to support the perception he intended to create alarm.” A clock. It was a fucking clock.
Boyd also made sure to tout his “outstanding relationship” with the Muslim community — a relationship not shared by Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne — while Irving Independent School District officials sulkily implied that there was more to the story and we just don’t get it. Irving ISD spokesperson Lesley Weaver, pictured above, told the reporters at the press conference that the information on the incident “made public to this point has been very unbalanced.”
The national Council on American-Islamic relations will also hold a press conference Wednesday on Mohamed’s arrest. Safe to guess that they are also unhappy, perhaps litigiously so. CAIR’s Chicago chapter went Flavor Flav to support the teen:
And while it’s beautiful and inspiring that Mohamed has rocketed to fame and that he’s been greeted with such a tidal wave of support, his arrest was still possible because of an overwhelming climate of Islamophobia, and there are still thousands of other kids who will face the same discrimination without a fraction of the warm and justice-providing media spotlight.
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Lesley Weaver, Irving IDS spokesperson, provides a statement on Ahmed Mohamed’s case to the media. Photo via AP Images
