(UPDATED WITH PHOTO OF THE CLOCK)
A Muslim student’s homemade digital clock spooked his teacher who alerted the principal and the next thing you know he was arrested for making a hoax bomb:
From the outset this whole thing seems stupid and very unfortunate. I’m not sure why the English teacher reacted this way or why the principal called the police. It’s even stranger that the police arrested the kid. All they had to do was determine it was a clock just as the kid said.
But what I really hate about all of this is that this incident gives CAIR legitimacy as they point the Islamophobic finger at this American high school. And now, of course, Obama is getting involved:
Pres Obama comes to defense of Texas high school student who got in trouble for making a clock. Now invited to WH. https://t.co/QVpIWSwsu8
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) September 16, 2015
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
What’s really a shame is that Obama didn’t invite Kate Steinnle’s family to the White House. But he wasted no time in inviting Ahmed. Of course, the latter fits his narrative that America is a racist, Islamophobic country.
UPDATE: Here’s more from Ahmed on what happened, including the fact that he said he wrapped the little case with a cable instead of locking it so it wouldn’t look suspicious:
As always things aren’t as cut and dry as we know. Maybe the cable made it look more suspicious than he thought. He was apparently concerned about that.
I’m still not sure why the cops arrested him, though, because if it was just a clock then I’m sure they could have determined that before arresting him.
UPDATE 2: Here is a statement by the Irving Police Chief on why they arrested Ahmed:
Based on what the Chief said, it’s starting to make sense why they arrested Ahmed as this thing unraveled. He obviously wasn’t forthcoming and initially police thought he might have created it to cause some chaos and get the attention of police. But upon further investigation they realized that was not the case.
This is also worth noting:
Leslie Weaver with the Irving Independent School District said that there is a lot more to the story. “If the family in question would like to give us written permission, we would be more than happy to be able to share a more balanced story,” explained Weaver.
And here’s a photo of the clock:
