Ahmed Mohamed’s clock: from arrest to social media hero – The Verge

Ahmed Mohamed is moving to Qatar to go to school

2015-10-21T09:21:55-04:00

Ahmed Mohamed, the schoolboy who was handcuffed and questioned by police after bringing a homemade clock to school, is moving to Qatar with his family. Mohamed has accepted a full scholarship from the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development, where he will join its Young Innovators Program in Doha. The 14-year-old visited the White House Monday evening to take part in an astronomy night hosted by President Barack Obama, with his family announcing their decision to leave America on Tuesday.

"Our family has been overwhelmed by the many offers of support we have received since the unfortunate incident of Ahmed's arres …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Ahmed Mohamed hangs out with Sergey Brin at Google Science Fair

2015-09-22T05:19:28-04:00

Ahmed Mohamed / Twitter" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15508981/ahmed_and_sergey.0.0.1442912945.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100" />

Wrongly arrested schoolboy Ahmed Mohamed has continued his victory lap of nerd glory with a visit to the annual Google Science Fair. Mohamed was invited to the event last week by Google, and according to a report from USA Today, received a warm welcome, touring the booths and taking pictures with finalists. "We learned about you in school!" one student from California told Mohamed, who even got a chance to hang out with Google's co-founder Sergey Brin.

In a blog post written by Mariette DiChristina, editor-in-chief at the Scientific American and head judge at the fair, Mohamed's attendance was noted as symbolic of the need to support and en …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Richard Dawkins calling Ahmed Mohamed a fraud is everything wrong with Richard Dawkins

2015-09-21T11:19:25-04:00

On Twitter this weekend, the famed biologist and internet crank Richard Dawkins said that Ahmed Mohamed - the 14-year-old who was arrested after a homemade clock he brought to school was mistaken for a hoax bomb - had committed fraud by pretending to have invented the clock in question. Even worse, Dawkins went on to speculate that Mohamed engineered the situation for personal gain, suggesting that he perhaps "wanted" to be arrested.

The reaction is typical of Dawkins, seizing upon the tiniest, most irrelevant factual point of order simply to add his voice to the conversation and crowbar in his own agenda. Looking at the evidence on the web (i …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Ahmed Mohamed says he’s going to the White House — and then he’s transferring schools

2015-09-16T17:56:36-04:00

Two days after his arrest for bringing a homemade clock to school, Ahmed Mohamed appeared at a press conference today to address his supporters. The 14-year-old student at MacArthur High School in Irving, TX, thanked his many fans on social media, who include Mark Zuckerberg, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama, among many others. At his press conference, Ahmed said he planned to take the president up on his offer to visit him at the White House - and said he also plans to transfer to another school.

Ahmed looked upbeat during his roughly 6-minute appearance, smiling as he recounted the absurd series of events that led him to his arrest. Poli …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Mark Zuckerberg invites Ahmed Mohamed to visit Facebook

2015-09-16T14:19:12-04:00

Ahmed Mohamed is going to have a busy couple of weeks. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has joined the list of high-profile names showing support by extending an invite to meet the 14-year-old Irving, Texas student arrested Monday for bringing a clock to school.

"Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed," Zuckerberg wrote on his personal Facebook page shortly after 1:30PM. "Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I'd love to meet you." President Barack Obama this morning invited Mohamed to the White House in a tweet, while Hilary Clinton tweeted suppo …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Texas principal sends awful letter to parents after Ahmed Mohamed was wrongfully arrested

2015-09-16T13:39:11-04:00

Fourteen-year-old Texas student Ahmed Mohamed was arrested yesterday for bringing a clock to school, after his teacher and police confused it for a bomb. While charges were eventually dropped, the school district issued a memo to parents stating that it succeeded in its goal of keeping students safe. That memo fails to acknowledge that it confused an incident ultimately fueled by Islamophobia for a legitimate one, instead showing the school trying to hide behind the reasonable aim of taking school security seriously.

In a memo sent to parents, MacArthur High School principal Dan Cummings states that the local police responded to a suspiciou …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Ahmed Mohamed won’t be charged for bringing homemade clock to school

2015-09-16T13:27:00-04:00

Following news that 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school, there's been an outpouring of support for the Texas student. Police, at first, kept the option open to charge Mohamed with making a "hoax bomb," but at a press conference today announced that "the case is considered closed."

According to The Dallas Morning News, who first broke the story, Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd told a gathering at a press conference that officials were "confident it's not an explosive device." (In an unfortunately worded moment, he reportedly also said there was "no evidence that there was an intention to create alarm …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Obama invites student arrested over homemade clock to the White House

2015-09-16T12:51:55-04:00

President Obama wants Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old who was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school, to bring his creation to the White House. Obama tweeted out support for Mohamed this morning, saying that America ought to be encouraging students to get into science and engineering - presumably, rather than arresting them. "Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House?" he said. "We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great."

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 …

Read the full story at The Verge.

14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed arrested for bringing homemade clock to school

2015-09-16T03:09:08-04:00

Police in Texas have arrested a 14-year-old boy for building a clock. Ahmed Mohamed, who lives in Irving and has a keen interest in robotics and engineering, put the device together on Sunday night. When he took it to school the next day, he was pulled out of class, interviewed by police officers, and taken in handcuffs to juvenile detention, after being told by teachers that his creation looked like a bomb.

Ahmed may still be charged with making a "hoax bomb"

Ahmed told The Dallas Morning News that he showed his clock - a simple device, created from a circuit board and a power supply wired to a digital display, all strapped inside a case wi …

Read the full story at The Verge.