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# A Clock Is a Clock Is a Clock, Except (Duh) When a Muslim Kid Makes It
September 17 2015
Written by Abby Zimet.
[](https://www.addtoany.com/share)
GUEST COMMENTARY--Our national idiocy, racism and rampant Islamophobia came into spectacularly inane focus this week in the saga of Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old smart brown kid in Irving, Texas[ arrested ](http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece)when he created an ingenious homemade clock that school officials and [police](http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/16/us/texas-student-ahmed-muslim-clock-bomb/index.html?eref=rss_latest) in their wisdom figured must be a bomb, 'cause, c'mon, it had wires, and anyway look at his name.
The high point of the sorry spectacle had to be the police spokesman explaining they arrested him when they "attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would only tell us that it was a clock" - maybe because, actually, it was? - but there was no "broader explanation” of his unfathomable creation, like, you know, big hand, little hand kinda thing.
The losers of the day: The police, for showing themselves to be racist morons; Irving's famously Islamophobic mayor, who [praised ](http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/irving-mayor-defends-arrest-of-muslim-teen-with-clock-to-the-best-of-my-knowledge-they-followed-protocol/)their "diligence and professionalism"; and America, for inexcusably, inexplicably allowing so many of its so-called public servants to achieve positions of power despite their mind-boggling stupidity, [prejudice ](http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/09/16/arrest-muslim-teen-bringing-clock-school-inevitable-byproduct-culture-fear)and incompetence.
The winners: Ahmed's Sudanese parents, who ordered pizzas for the horde of media outside their house; Ahmed, who won online support, praise for his advice to other brainy kids to "go for it," and[ invitations](https://twitter.com/hashtag/IStandWithAhmed?src=hash) from the White House, Twitter, Facebook, NASA, scientific and engineering organizations, and a bunch of STEM-oriented schools, including [M.I.T.](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ahmed-mohamed-facebook-mit-ut?utm_content=buffera8889&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer), his "dream school"; the media who dug up stories about all the other you'd-think-suspicious classroom[ inventions](http://fusion.net/story/198213/ahmed-mohamed-other-suspicious-items/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=thisisfusion&hootPostID=621eea527902ca90e9ee76ace02f04e6) - lemon battery, [potato clock,](http://gawker.com/7-kids-not-named-mohamed-who-brought-homemade-clocks-to-1730999866) baking soda volcano, and a nuclear reactor [built](http://mentalfloss.com/article/28576/mad-scientist-month-whos-afraid-taylor-wilson) by another 14-year-old (white, obviously) - that earned their creators acclaim and support, not handcuffs; and the Internet, which [lit up](https://twitter.com/hashtag/AhmedMohamed?src=hash).
From the brilliant [\#IStandWithAhmed](https://twitter.com/hashtag/IStandWithAhmed?src=hash) hashtag: because people are more threatened by a brown boy who loves engineering than white people carrying guns around in a Target.
\#IStandWithAhmed because he wasn't carrying anything dangerous, like Skittles or iced tea.
In Texas, you can get arrested for being smarter than your teachers. What kind of nation is this where a [nerd ](http://boingboing.net/2015/09/16/arab-looking-man-of-syrian-des.html)cannot freely be a nerd?" We are this kind of nation. Maybe Ahmed will help change it.
*(Abby Zimet writes for [Common Dreams](http://commondreams.org) where this commentary was first posted.)*
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 76
Pub: Sep 18, 2015
{module \[1177\]}
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