One of the top national news stories this week revolved around a young man from Texas named Ahmed Mohamed. The young man was arrested when a teacher had suspected that he brought a homemade bomb to school that turned out to be clock.
The authorities were called and Mohamed was arrested on the school grounds that day. He was released of course when it was determined that he did not build a bomb and had in fact built a harmless household object.
Since that juncture in time, a lot has happened to Mohamed. He has been invited to spend time at Facebook’s headquarters, has refused the school’s apology and has decided to transfer, and has also received an invitation from President Barack Obama to go to the White House to show the Commander-in-Chief his invention.
Naturally Mohamed has become the center of a social media storm. The hashtag #IStandWithAhmed became a trending topic for many, while others have stood in opposition of Ahmed.
Late night comedian Bill Maher was quoted on his program Real Time with Bill Maher saying:“Look, this kid deserves an apology — no doubt about it. They were wrong. But can we have a little perspective about this? Did the teacher really do a wrong thing?”
Both former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol decided to comment as well. Palin, the elder, claimed the clock definitely looked like a bomb while her daughter said that Mohamed did not deserve an invite to the White House.
While it is not the place of The Xavierite to comment on who gets to go to the White House and who doesn’t – that belongs to the POTUS or whoever makes the official guest list – we do think that Mohamed got a raw deal and some of us agree with Mark Zuckerberg that the spirit of invention should be fostered.
Many on our staff found it easy to sympathize with the young man. It must be an embarrassing ordeal to not only be arrested at age 14 and have all of your school colleagues know about it, but to actually be arrested at school because you were suspected of terrorism is on a whole other level of disgrace and embarrassment.
True, Mohamed’s clock is unconventional looking and some may understand why an educator would think to bring the matter up as the clock very little resembles a clock. But, what some of us are wondering is why are some people still mad at Mohamed?
He built a clock. Someone thought it was a bomb, but it wasn’t. At the end of the day Mohamed did not bring a bomb to school. He was not endangering anyone’s life. He was embarrassed and arrested for doing nothing wrong.
Islamophobia is a real issue in the American public. If more people chose to read and learn about this large culture of people instead of condemning them for the wrongs of the minority, then people like Mohamed would not have to fear becoming inventors.
We hope that Mohamed will never give up on his dreams of becoming an inventor or engineer and push forward to overcome the prejudice against Muslims.
The Xavierite Editorial Board