Washington: A 14-year-old Muslim boy Ahmed Mohammed who loves to invent things was handcuffed and arrested after bringing a homemade clock to his Texas high school.
According to Dallas Morning News, the ninth grader from Texas, was eager to impress his teachers with his newest creation – a clock which he invented in just 20 minutes, consisting of a circuit board and a power supply wired to a digital display. The clock and its wirings were all strapped inside a case.
But when he showed his engineering teacher the clock, he didn’t receive the response he was hoping for.
“He was like, ‘That’s really nice,’” Ahmed said, as quoted by the Dallas Morning News. “‘I would advise you not to show any other teachers.’”
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama invited him to the White House after he was arrested and dragged off in handcuffs for bringing a homemade clock to class.
Obama congratulated 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed on his skills and issued a presidential invitation, in what amounts to a pointed rebuke to school and police officials who precipitated his arrest.
“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,” the president tweeted.
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 (@POTUS44) September 16, 2015
The teen was led out of his Texas school after a teacher mistook his homemade digital clock for a bomb, prompting accusations of Islamophobia and an online backlash.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, NASA, Hillary Clinton and an MIT astrophysicist have also since reached out to him with several similar offers for him to pay them visits.
“Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I’d love to meet you,” Zuckerberg wrote him.
A photo of Ahmed standing in handcuffs while wearing a t-shirt with the US space agency NASA’s logo was retweeted thousands of times in a matter of hours and “#IStandWithAhmed” was the top trending hashtag on Twitter.
(With agency inputs)