Fourteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed who was arrested for bringing a clock that he built to school is the US' new Malala. Everyone from Obama and downwards now wants to rub shoulders with him
When he went to school on Monday, Ahmed was hoping to impress his teachers with a clock that he had built, but to his utter shock and confusion, he was arrested for it.
Ahmed is a Class 9 student at MacArthur high school in Irving, Texas. His teacher thought the clock was a bomb and asked him to explain the device to the school office, after which the 14-year old was handcuffed and arrested by school resource officers.
Across the world, people pointed out that he would not have been arrested if he was a white boy with a non-Muslim name. Ahmed’s father is from Sudan.
On social media, there was an outpouring of support with #IStandWithAhmed trending on Twitter.
The look on this kid's face while he's wearing a NASA shirt and handcuffs should haunt all of us. #IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/7R02HZ0FnQ
— Charles Clymer (@cmclymer) September 16, 2015But in the last 24 hours, Ahmed Mohamed has been showered with support and invitations to events across the country, starting with the president himself.
Congratulating Ahmed and appreciating his curiosity for science, Barack Obama invited the teenager to the White House Astronomy night. Corporate giants and other eminent people followed suit.
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, 2015Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg’s invite followed a couple of hours later. He expressed his dismay over Ahmed’s unfortunate arrest.
Micro-blogging site Twitter went ahead and offered the teen an internship!
After welcoming the 14-year old, Aaron Levie CEO of Box, tweeted saying “When a kid says "I want to be President," showing them this debate will reinforce that their dreams are easily within reach.”
Ahmed, I know you've been invited to the White House and Facebook. But, we both know you're enterprise software guy at heart. Come by Box!
— Aaron Levie (@levie) September 16, 2015Well, when all of them have shown their support, Google would not want to be left behind.
Google asked Ahmed to participate in the “Google Science Fair” that is to be held this weekend.
Hey Ahmed- we're saving a seat for you at this weekend's Google Science Fair...want to come? Bring your clock! #IStandwithAhmed
— Google Science Fair (@googlescifair) September 16, 2015
MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes introduced the 14-year old to astrophysicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, who is with the physics department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which is Ahmed’s “dream school”.
Weinstein told Ahmed that he was exactly the “kind of student we want at places like MIT and Harvard.” She invited him to visit MIT for a Computer Science and Lab tour.
He has also been invited to the Telescope lab at UT Austin and to General Electric’s headquarters at Connecticut, United States
Thanks to his clock, Ahmed has been offered a scholarship by NASA Marshall Space camp.
Perhaps knowing that he was a fan of all things science (Ahmed was wearing a t-shirt that said NASA on the day he was arrested) astronaut Daniel Tani gave the teen a space-flown shirt.