By SABAT ALI, age 9, and IndyKids Staff
PHOTO: Scott Sherrill-Mix
Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old Muslim Texas teenager with a talent and a passion for engineering, made a homemade digital clock in only 20 minutes and brought it to school the next day. After a teacher assumed that Mohamed’s clock was a bomb, he was pulled out of school in handcuffs, fingerprinted and interrogated about his intentions for the device. Eventually, no charges were made against Mohamed and after three days of suspension he was allowed to go back to school. The incident has prompted allegations of racism and Islamophobia. Mohamed has received much support, from President Obama’s personal invitation to the White House to the widely used #IStandWithAhmed hashtag. Mohamed and his family now plan to move to Qatar where he will join the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development’s prestigious Young Innovators Program.
