“Here’s what we know. On Monday, Mohammed brought a homemade clock to school. For those who don’t know the ins-and-outs of electronics, the device looked like a possible incendiary device. Ahmed told the media that he made the clock last weekend and brought it to school to show his engineering teacher. He explained to local news, “It was the first time I brought an invention to school to show a teacher.”
He didn’t explain that to police, however, according to the authorities. And he didn’t just show the device to his engineering teacher. In fact, the engineering teacher told him not to carry the device around after Mohammed showed him, according to The New York Times:
He said he took it to school on Monday to show an engineering teacher, who said it was nice but then told him he should not show the invention to other teachers. Later, Ahmed’s clock beeped during an English class, and after he revealed the device to the teacher, school officials notified the police, and Ahmed was interrogated by officers. “She thought it was a threat to her,” Ahmed told reporters Wednesday. “So it was really sad that she took a wrong impression of it.”
Why was the device in English class in the first place, especially after the engineering teacher told him not to show it around? When confronted by police and his English teacher, why didn’t Mohammed just tell them to talk to the engineering teacher? When police asked Ahmed what the device was and why he brought it to school, according to WFAA:
Officers said Ahmed was being “passive aggressive” in his answers to their questions, and didn’t have a “reasonable answer” as to what he was doing with the case. Investigators said the student told them that it was just a clock that he was messing around with. “We attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would simply only say it was a clock. He didn’t offer any explanation as to what it was for, why he created this device, why he brought it to school,” said James McLellan, Irving Police.”
“Given the limited evidence available, this is not far-fetched. Again, where was the engineering teacher to vouch for Mohammed’s story? Why didn’t Mohammed simply explain himself? The police said that initially, it was “not immediately evident” that the clock-in-a-case was a class experiment – perfectly plausible, given that Mohammed built the clock-in-a-case voluntarily, without assignment, and in conjunction with no science fair.”
“That’s probably not a coincidence. Ahmed’s father, as Pamela Geller points out, is an anti-Islamophobia media gadfly. He routinely returns to Sudan to run for president; he has debated anti-Koran Florida pastor Terry Jones, partially in order to bring his children to Disneyworld. In 2011, the Washington Post wrote of him:
Elhassan, a native of the Sudan who is now an American citizen, likes to call himself a sheik. He wears a cleric’s flowing white robes and claims hundreds of followers throughout Egypt, Sudan and in the United States. But he is unknown as a scholar or holy man in the state he has called home for two decades. Religious leaders in Texas say they have never heard of Elhassan, including the imam at the mosque where he worships.
It’s no surprise that Ahmed Mohammed’s dad ran to the cameras at the first opportunity. It’s also no surprise that the terror-connected Council on American-Islamic Relations arrived to push the Islamophobia narrative immediately.”
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Smells like a set-up, with some leftist exploitation thrown in.
Two points that have been made by others: If they really thought there was any possibility that it was a bomb, the school would have been evacuated. Many teachers have said that their schools evacuate at any hint there may be a bomb in the school. (A couple teachers have also said that it was apparent to them that the clock was not a bomb, as there were no explosives attached, but other people think it does look like a bomb.)
The other thing that has been pointed out is that we can’t even call this a hoax, since Ahmed never claimed it was a bomb.
Since they obviously knew it wasn’t a bomb, & it wasn’t even a hoax, then why did they call the police? Why did he have to be handcuffed & taken away?
As for his not mentioning showing it to the engineering teacher, who among us hasn’t choked in a confrontation, & then later thought of what we should have said? He’s a 14 year old kid, who must have been scared & confused while being interrogated by police. (I’m 40 years older than him, & I would have been scared & confused.)
If this was a “set-up”, I would like to think that Ahmed was a pawn.
The left is intent on framing this as strictly a case of Islamophobia, rather than a case of the ridiculous “zero tolerance” policies schools have. The right seems intent on blaming the kid. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle.
There’s something missing in the whole clock story, not sure what. But that’s why I hate the knee-jerk reactions (first and more strongly on the left, of course).
Something’s not right, something’s missing (I think) … More to be revealed, I’m pretty sure. ?
So unlike most folks on social media 🙂 , I’m withholding judgement until more is known.
The post from AJ may reveal some of the missing context … But the clock story at face value seems too tightly packaged for media and outrage-of-the-day consumption.
Donna – I agree that there must be more to this story, & I’ve said that on Facebook discussions. I don’t like the left’s reaction nor do I like the far right’s reaction.
Donna – I’ll admit that I was quick to share on Facebook an article reacting against the left’s “Islamophobia!” knee-jerk reaction. It pointed out the many, many cases of kids of all colors & religions routinely getting in trouble for stupid stuff like chewing a PopTart into the shape of a gun. But then I thought to myself, what if further information comes out that looks more like they did pinpoint him because of being a Muslim?
Another thing I’ve thought of: If Ahmed’s father is so well-known in the area for his activism, then why didn’t they treat the boy with kid gloves? They should have known what would happen in the media.
I can tell you exactly why Ahmed didn’t give ‘”clear answers” to the police. I heard an interview on Canadian radio of him. In the interview, he said that the police kept saying to him, “Just admit that it’s a bomb.” I immediately recognized the technique. You see, I have experienced the exact same interrogation method. When I was stopped by certain border guards, they kept saying “Just admit you are coming here to work”, in fact they pushed it further and said, “If you don’t admit that your coming here to work, then we will ban you from the country for life.” I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t. What could I do but simply state the truth that I was not coming there to work? I would have been lying to say otherwise; and Ahmed would have been lying to say anything other than that it was a clock. I have to say, those interrogation techniques they use are very archaic and smack of the Inquisition (“Just confess your heresy’). So I have no trouble believing that Ahmed got very bewildered by them – I was stunned. What Ahmed’s father is in no way negates the fact that Ahmed was treated very badly when he did nothing wrong.
Does someone have a more complete and updated story from a trusted, objective news source to post? I’ve been looking, haven’t seen one yet beyond what was filed a day or so ago — and I’m not inclined to accept many of the sites posting on this from either the right or left right now. Sigh.
Again, just looking for a more complete (and well-sourced) news report on this entire incident. Seems like everyone (esp on FB) is just a little too eager to use it for their own political narratives…
But perhaps few of the actual people involved can talk as this — no doubt — is headed into court in a lawsuit.
I thought at first it was just another case of zero tolerance stupidity. But given the players in this besides Ahmed, I’m thinking there’s more to this. CAIR loves to cook up stuff like this to promote the idea that islamophobia is a problem. This is just too neatly packaged for outrage, as Donna said. Something stinks here.
I think Ahmed is a pawn in his father’s and CAIR’s play for attention. I think they sent him to school with this suspicious looking device inside a breifcase knowing exactly the reaction it would cause, and exactly how they were gonna exploit it.
And given the numerous recent arrests of muslim youth in this country for planning attacks and trying to join or support ISIS, it’s not like the police didn’t have reason for their suspicions or interrogation techniques. They were within the law and didn’t violate his rights. People are cuffed and taken into custody every day while police investigate possible crimes. But when no crime is found the police release them, just like they did here.
The Real, I have stayed out of the controversy until now, expecting it to blow over. But the Breitbart article pulls a lot of non sequitors. For example, the whole speculation about Ahmed bringing the clock into English class on purpose. First of all, he was in school and he had obviously been to his engineering class. What do teens in high school do? They go from one classroom to the next. So, he went to English class. Nothing suspicious in that. His engineering teacher said not to show it to anyone else. So he didn’t and kept it in his bag. We know this, because when the English teacher heard the beep, she didn’t know what it was. So Ahmed didn’t disobey the engineering teacher. By the way, in a day when most teens carry cell phones that beep whenever they get a text, it seems strange that a teacher would immediately think it might be a bomb. So, when the teacher asks, Ahmed obeys and shows the clock. Then the police get called in and they insist they didn’t get clear answers with their techniques. Well, since they were telling him to say it was a bomb, then of course they didn’t get the clear answer they wanted. If you ask people to lie and they insist on telling the truth, then you are in the wrong. Since Breitbart’s premise that it was a plant is based on Ahmed’s apparently strange behaviour; when that behaviour is viewed logically, that premise breaks down. Ahmed did obey his engineering teacher, until his English teacher asked to see the clock, and he told the truth to the police. He did nothing wrong. Also, to say the clock was a plant is to question Ahmed’s ability to make it, which seems very unfair to a young teen who did not choose the father he has.
Ahmed didn’t build that. The idea that this is a setup is getting harder to ignore. The kid’s whole story of “inventing” a clock falls apart. All he did was take the cover off an alarm clock.
I”ll reserve further judgement in the interest of fairness to the boy, but I still say it stinks. We’ll see how it plays out. I’m sure we’ll hear plenty more on it as time passes. If it’s a fraud, it’ll come out.
I have children who freeze under questioning. I have children who would have gone on to show the clock to everybody else in the school. I can believe he is a puppet. More info, please.
“I have something in common with Ahmed Mohamed: as a youngster, I was also an electronics enthusiast. At his age and even earlier, I frequently took apart electronic devices – anything from my own toys, to broken things around the house, and even that dirty garbage-picked black and white TV my parents dragged home that they knew I’d have a blast playing with (I did.) I’d try and troubleshoot, repair, or sometimes just disassemble things and salvage components for future projects. I’d try and imagine how all those bits and pieces, lengths of wires, mazes of conductive circuit board traces all came together to produce an image, or a sound, or some other useful function. I wanted to know how it all worked.
Without dating myself – fast forward a bunch of years, and I’m the same way. I’ve even picked up an engineering degree over the course of those years. I don’t have to only imagine how things work anymore, I have a pretty good understanding now. When shopping for electronic devices, my first instinct is to see if there’s a way to build one myself (and, I frequently do!) When something of mine breaks, I don’t send it back, I take it as a personal challenge to get it working again. If I fail, I still salvage useful parts – they might come in handy to fix something else later. This aspect of myself – being both methodical, and curious – hasn’t changed a bit over the years.
I found the highest resolution photograph of the clock I could. Instantly, I was disappointed. Somewhere in all of this – there has indeed been a hoax. Ahmed Mohamed didn’t invent his own alarm clock. He didn’t even build a clock. Now, before I go on and get accused of attacking a 14 year old kid who’s already been through enough, let me explain my purpose. I don’t want to just dissect the clock. I want to dissect our reaction as a society to the situation. Part of that is the knee-jerk responses we’re all so quick to make without facts. So, before you scroll down and leave me angry comments, please continue to the end (or not – prove my point, and miss the point, entirely!)”
For starters, one glance at the printed circuit board in the photo, and I knew we were looking at mid-to-late 1970s vintage electronics. Surely you’ve seen a modern circuit board, with metallic traces leading all over to the various components like an electronic spider’s web. You’ll notice right away the highly accurate spacing, straightness of the lines, consistency of the patterns. That’s because we design things on computers nowadays, and computers assist in routing these lines. Take a look at the board in Ahmed’s clock. It almost looks hand-drawn, right? That’s because it probably was. Computer aided design was in its infancy in the 70s. This is how simple, low cost items (like an alarm clock) were designed. Today, even a budding beginner is going to get some computer aided assistance – in fact they’ll probably start there, learning by simulating designs before building them. You can even simulate or lay out a board with free apps on your phone or tablet. A modern hobbyist usually wouldn’t be bothered with the outdated design techniques. There’s also silk screening on the board. An “M” logo, “C-94” (probably, a part number – C might even stand for “clock”), and what looks like an American flag. More about that in a minute. Point for now being, a hobbyist wouldn’t silk screen logos and part numbers on their home made creation. It’s pretty safe to say already we’re looking at ’70s tech, mass produced in a factory.”
“For one last bit of confirmation, I located the pencil box Ahmed used for his project. During this video interview he again claims it was his “invention” and that he “made” the device – but the important thing at the moment, at 1:13, we see him showing the pencil box on his computer screen. Here it is on Amazon, where it’s clearly labeled as being 8.25 inches wide. Our eBay seller also conveniently took a photo of the clock next to a ruler to show it’s scale – about 8 inches wide. The dimensions all line up perfectly.
So there you have it folks, Ahmed Mohamad did not invent, nor build a clock. He took apart an existing clock, and transplanted the guts into a pencil box, and claimed it was his own creation. It all seems really fishy to me.”
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The author of this then goes on to discuss the rest of the incident. It’s a good piece worth consideration IMHO.
“I think the whole event – and our collective response, with everybody up to the President chiming in, says a whole lot about us. We don’t care that none of us were there and knows what happened, we jump to conclusions and assume we’re experts. We care about the story, but we don’t care about the actual facts. Headlines and click-bait are far more interesting than thinking for ourselves. We like to point out other any bit of perceived injustice or discrimination we can find – it’s practically a new national past-time. We like playing victim, and we like talking about victims – so much so we sometimes find victims where none really existed. We also like to find somebody to blame, even when there’s nobody at fault. We like to play social justice warrior on our Facebooks and Twitters, posting memes and headlines without digging in behind the sensationalism, winning bonus sensitivity points in the forms of likes and re-tweets. Once group-think kicks in, we rally around hash tags and start shouting moral outrage in a deafeningly loud national chorus. The media plays us like a fiddle, and we don’t even notice we’ve all been had.”
When I look at how pro-Muslim (or pro-gay or pro-transgender) the media & our president are, I remind myself that there are more layers to our society. It’s easy to look at the pro-[all those things I mentioned] status of the media, Hollywood, & liberals, & think that Muslims, gays, & transgender people all have it pretty easy in our country.
But the sad truth is that there still are too many hateful bullies out there who do discriminate against, beat up on, & even murder them because of their religion or sexuality. Maybe not as many as the left would like us to believe, but still too many.
And I did think it was awfully distasteful that YF chose September 11 to share an article about all the Muslims (or assumed-to-be Muslims) who have been beaten or murdered for being (or assumed to be) Muslim.
Okay, I’ll shut up now, & let someone else talk. 🙂
‘What do teens in high school do? They go from one classroom to the next.” What else do kids in high do? They have lockers. Why didn’t he leave it in his locker?
Karen, or perhaps he simply pieced a clock together from old parts in all innocence. His use of the term ‘invented’ may simply be the mistake of a child using a term in his second language: http://makezine.com/2015/09/16/this-is-ahmed-mohameds-clock/
Why assume the worst?
Did the engineering teacher think the device might be provocative or raise fears if seen (and is that why he told him not to “show” it to anyone)? If so, why didn’t that teacher just keep it in his classroom? And was the engineering teacher summoned or consulted when the English teacher reacted? Did anyone know that the engineering teacher could have cleared it all up?
Maybe I’ve missed parts of the story. Or maybe that’s why I feel like there’s more to this than we know.
Well, I’d say the worst also is perhaps being assumed of the teachers and authorities on the “other” side of this (as reacting the way they did because they are anti-Muslim).
President Obama has decided that his invited guests for the arrival of Pope Francis next week will include transgender activists, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, and a nun who criticizes church policies on abortion and euthanasia. The Vatican has objected. It notes that photos taken with the pope might be used to suggest his endorsement of activities he does not approve.
I’m no fan of this pope. Thus, I’m tempted to think that if Pope Francis wants to embrace the left, let him experience the full menu.
What I actually think, however, is that Obama’s lack of respect for the pope is inexcusable.
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Mona Charen: It’s vintage Obama. Even when hosting the most ideologically sympathetic pontiff in his lifetime (climate change, Cuba), Mr. Obama cannot restrain himself. He cannot be civil and respectful, searching for common ground. . . .
We’ve become a little inured to this president’s staggering insensitivity and passive aggression over the years. But in this case, you’d have to remove the “passive” part. This is an embarrassing moment for our country.
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Donna, both sides are making the same mistake – they are both making this story about Ahmed’s religious origins. In the words of Proverbs, “Answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou be like unto him.” A better response to the cries of ‘Islamaphobia” would be something like this thoughtful BBC take: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34277568
Re the president’s specially selected greeting committee for the pope — someone on one of the blogs suggested they just go ahead and bathe the White House in those (tacky) rainbow lights again for the full effect.
And FB, I see, is filled with clock-related posts about “a special kind of stupid” (texas), “when racial stereotyping meets scientific illiteracy,” “police need to brush up on their STEM training” (especially amusing after reading the stories about the “clock”) …
Tychicus, interesting link. And I’ve been hearing the term fascism used lately with regard to the left (and its insistence on group think with no diversity of opinion tolerated). It’s a startling term, but one that, by definition, may be somewhat accurate).
Meanwhile, Hillary’s in rare form I see from a speech snippet today … Groan.
Assuming a Muslim is a terrorist, bad. Assuming a Texan is a bigot, understandable. Huff Po commenters were congratulating themselves on how civil they were regarding the crane accident in Mecca. When I posted a link to their hateful comments on a Mississippi tornado Crickets.
Good for you kbells – can’t tell you how often I see people running down and saying horrible things about people who are conservative — or happen to live in a (red) state they don’t like. They don’t seem to see the hypocrisy.
Francis’s fact-free flamboyance reduces him to a shepherd whose selectively reverent flock, genuflecting only at green altars, is tiny relative to the publicity it receives from media otherwise disdainful of his church. Secular people with anti-Catholic agendas drain his prestige, a dwindling asset, into promotion of policies inimical to the most vulnerable people and unrelated to what once was the papacy’s very different salvific mission.
He stands against modernity, rationality, science and, ultimately, the spontaneous creativity of open societies in which people and their desires are not problems but precious resources. Americans cannot simultaneously honor him and celebrate their nation’s premises.
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Roscuro – I have not been assuming the worst about Ahmed. My comment about him not having built the clock is based on the information in the article that AJ shared at 2:18. In fact, that comment of mine was meant to give him the benefit of the doubt that he is not involved (or not knowingly involved) in any kind of “set up” that some are talking about.
Roscuro – Please let me know if you see my response to you above. Maybe this is silly of me, to want to know that you saw it, but I am one who tries to not assume the worst, & to give people the benefit of the doubt, even when I come off as naive. So your comment about me assuming the worst kind of smarted.
Texas is a mean place where peaceful Muslims who bring devices to their schools are harassed. It should be kicked out of the Union. Throw Brer Texas in that briar patch!
This story is remarkable for the ability for some people to go to great lengths to exonerate the idiocy of others.
A boy brings a clock to school. He shows it to a teacher and then stores it in his bag. It makes a noise in the next class and a teacher assumes its a bomb. Police are called. The boys is interrogated denies its a bomb and the police obviously believe or know this since the bomb squad is not called nor is the school evacuated. Yet they arrest him anyway.
Is this a demonstration of over zealous and slightly stupid police work, or Islamaphobia, or a deliberate scheme concocted by the boy’s father to grab attention. I’m going with the first but with a slight nod to the second.
The last theory requires me to believe that somehow the boy and his father had the foresight to know a teacher, the principal and the police would act in such a way the defies logic and they would have the ability to manipulate these people to generate maximum publicity. His father shouldn’t run for Sudanese president rather with this ability he should play the stock market.
I give a nod to Islamaphobia. Simply because if it was a middle class white boy bringing a clock to school, the reaction would have been different. On the other hand, if the boy had been black, a goth-type outsider, or working class, other prejudices would’ve been at play.
There is an article in Huff Post on what we all can do to combat Islamophobia. You know what Muslims could do to combat Islamophobia? They could stop blowing people up.
It is true, I think, that that the militants & terrorists are a small percentage of Muslims. The problem is that even a small percentage of 1.62 billion (the number of Muslims worldwide according to Wikipedia) is still an awful lot!
And there is a recent and ongoing history of domestic terrorism being committed still by Muslims.
I think I read that while school/police officials realized it wasn’t really a bomb, the thought was perhaps he’d brought it in as a scare tactic (since he was so non communicative). Maybe he was too scared to explain, and maybe authorities overreacted.
Both sides caused this to go further than it should have.
I don’t see any outright racism or malicious intent here.
But, hey, it’s got a hashtag and you can’t stop a movement that has a hashtag with reason or a more nuanced truth. 😦 So on they’ll go.
Wandering Views 
Hmmmmm……..
Maybe folks should rethink “standing with Ahmed”….
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/18/real-story-istandwithahmed/
“Here’s what we know. On Monday, Mohammed brought a homemade clock to school. For those who don’t know the ins-and-outs of electronics, the device looked like a possible incendiary device. Ahmed told the media that he made the clock last weekend and brought it to school to show his engineering teacher. He explained to local news, “It was the first time I brought an invention to school to show a teacher.”
He didn’t explain that to police, however, according to the authorities. And he didn’t just show the device to his engineering teacher. In fact, the engineering teacher told him not to carry the device around after Mohammed showed him, according to The New York Times:
He said he took it to school on Monday to show an engineering teacher, who said it was nice but then told him he should not show the invention to other teachers. Later, Ahmed’s clock beeped during an English class, and after he revealed the device to the teacher, school officials notified the police, and Ahmed was interrogated by officers. “She thought it was a threat to her,” Ahmed told reporters Wednesday. “So it was really sad that she took a wrong impression of it.”
Why was the device in English class in the first place, especially after the engineering teacher told him not to show it around? When confronted by police and his English teacher, why didn’t Mohammed just tell them to talk to the engineering teacher? When police asked Ahmed what the device was and why he brought it to school, according to WFAA:
Officers said Ahmed was being “passive aggressive” in his answers to their questions, and didn’t have a “reasonable answer” as to what he was doing with the case. Investigators said the student told them that it was just a clock that he was messing around with. “We attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would simply only say it was a clock. He didn’t offer any explanation as to what it was for, why he created this device, why he brought it to school,” said James McLellan, Irving Police.”
“Given the limited evidence available, this is not far-fetched. Again, where was the engineering teacher to vouch for Mohammed’s story? Why didn’t Mohammed simply explain himself? The police said that initially, it was “not immediately evident” that the clock-in-a-case was a class experiment – perfectly plausible, given that Mohammed built the clock-in-a-case voluntarily, without assignment, and in conjunction with no science fair.”
“That’s probably not a coincidence. Ahmed’s father, as Pamela Geller points out, is an anti-Islamophobia media gadfly. He routinely returns to Sudan to run for president; he has debated anti-Koran Florida pastor Terry Jones, partially in order to bring his children to Disneyworld. In 2011, the Washington Post wrote of him:
Elhassan, a native of the Sudan who is now an American citizen, likes to call himself a sheik. He wears a cleric’s flowing white robes and claims hundreds of followers throughout Egypt, Sudan and in the United States. But he is unknown as a scholar or holy man in the state he has called home for two decades. Religious leaders in Texas say they have never heard of Elhassan, including the imam at the mosque where he worships.
It’s no surprise that Ahmed Mohammed’s dad ran to the cameras at the first opportunity. It’s also no surprise that the terror-connected Council on American-Islamic Relations arrived to push the Islamophobia narrative immediately.”
==========================
Smells like a set-up, with some leftist exploitation thrown in.
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Two points that have been made by others: If they really thought there was any possibility that it was a bomb, the school would have been evacuated. Many teachers have said that their schools evacuate at any hint there may be a bomb in the school. (A couple teachers have also said that it was apparent to them that the clock was not a bomb, as there were no explosives attached, but other people think it does look like a bomb.)
The other thing that has been pointed out is that we can’t even call this a hoax, since Ahmed never claimed it was a bomb.
Since they obviously knew it wasn’t a bomb, & it wasn’t even a hoax, then why did they call the police? Why did he have to be handcuffed & taken away?
As for his not mentioning showing it to the engineering teacher, who among us hasn’t choked in a confrontation, & then later thought of what we should have said? He’s a 14 year old kid, who must have been scared & confused while being interrogated by police. (I’m 40 years older than him, & I would have been scared & confused.)
If this was a “set-up”, I would like to think that Ahmed was a pawn.
The left is intent on framing this as strictly a case of Islamophobia, rather than a case of the ridiculous “zero tolerance” policies schools have. The right seems intent on blaming the kid. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle.
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There’s something missing in the whole clock story, not sure what. But that’s why I hate the knee-jerk reactions (first and more strongly on the left, of course).
Something’s not right, something’s missing (I think) … More to be revealed, I’m pretty sure. ?
So unlike most folks on social media 🙂 , I’m withholding judgement until more is known.
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The post from AJ may reveal some of the missing context … But the clock story at face value seems too tightly packaged for media and outrage-of-the-day consumption.
And immediately hashtag-ready, of course.
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Donna – I agree that there must be more to this story, & I’ve said that on Facebook discussions. I don’t like the left’s reaction nor do I like the far right’s reaction.
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Donna – I’ll admit that I was quick to share on Facebook an article reacting against the left’s “Islamophobia!” knee-jerk reaction. It pointed out the many, many cases of kids of all colors & religions routinely getting in trouble for stupid stuff like chewing a PopTart into the shape of a gun. But then I thought to myself, what if further information comes out that looks more like they did pinpoint him because of being a Muslim?
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Another thing I’ve thought of: If Ahmed’s father is so well-known in the area for his activism, then why didn’t they treat the boy with kid gloves? They should have known what would happen in the media.
Nothing makes sense in this story.
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I can tell you exactly why Ahmed didn’t give ‘”clear answers” to the police. I heard an interview on Canadian radio of him. In the interview, he said that the police kept saying to him, “Just admit that it’s a bomb.” I immediately recognized the technique. You see, I have experienced the exact same interrogation method. When I was stopped by certain border guards, they kept saying “Just admit you are coming here to work”, in fact they pushed it further and said, “If you don’t admit that your coming here to work, then we will ban you from the country for life.” I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t. What could I do but simply state the truth that I was not coming there to work? I would have been lying to say otherwise; and Ahmed would have been lying to say anything other than that it was a clock. I have to say, those interrogation techniques they use are very archaic and smack of the Inquisition (“Just confess your heresy’). So I have no trouble believing that Ahmed got very bewildered by them – I was stunned. What Ahmed’s father is in no way negates the fact that Ahmed was treated very badly when he did nothing wrong.
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Does someone have a more complete and updated story from a trusted, objective news source to post? I’ve been looking, haven’t seen one yet beyond what was filed a day or so ago — and I’m not inclined to accept many of the sites posting on this from either the right or left right now. Sigh.
Again, just looking for a more complete (and well-sourced) news report on this entire incident. Seems like everyone (esp on FB) is just a little too eager to use it for their own political narratives…
But perhaps few of the actual people involved can talk as this — no doubt — is headed into court in a lawsuit.
Again. Sigh.
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I refuse to have an opinion on this one until I know more.
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Well, not seeing any stories (yet) that truly advance exactly what happened with some more interviews and information that shed any light.
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I thought at first it was just another case of zero tolerance stupidity. But given the players in this besides Ahmed, I’m thinking there’s more to this. CAIR loves to cook up stuff like this to promote the idea that islamophobia is a problem. This is just too neatly packaged for outrage, as Donna said. Something stinks here.
I think Ahmed is a pawn in his father’s and CAIR’s play for attention. I think they sent him to school with this suspicious looking device inside a breifcase knowing exactly the reaction it would cause, and exactly how they were gonna exploit it.
And given the numerous recent arrests of muslim youth in this country for planning attacks and trying to join or support ISIS, it’s not like the police didn’t have reason for their suspicions or interrogation techniques. They were within the law and didn’t violate his rights. People are cuffed and taken into custody every day while police investigate possible crimes. But when no crime is found the police release them, just like they did here.
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The Real, I have stayed out of the controversy until now, expecting it to blow over. But the Breitbart article pulls a lot of non sequitors. For example, the whole speculation about Ahmed bringing the clock into English class on purpose. First of all, he was in school and he had obviously been to his engineering class. What do teens in high school do? They go from one classroom to the next. So, he went to English class. Nothing suspicious in that. His engineering teacher said not to show it to anyone else. So he didn’t and kept it in his bag. We know this, because when the English teacher heard the beep, she didn’t know what it was. So Ahmed didn’t disobey the engineering teacher. By the way, in a day when most teens carry cell phones that beep whenever they get a text, it seems strange that a teacher would immediately think it might be a bomb. So, when the teacher asks, Ahmed obeys and shows the clock. Then the police get called in and they insist they didn’t get clear answers with their techniques. Well, since they were telling him to say it was a bomb, then of course they didn’t get the clear answer they wanted. If you ask people to lie and they insist on telling the truth, then you are in the wrong. Since Breitbart’s premise that it was a plant is based on Ahmed’s apparently strange behaviour; when that behaviour is viewed logically, that premise breaks down. Ahmed did obey his engineering teacher, until his English teacher asked to see the clock, and he told the truth to the police. He did nothing wrong. Also, to say the clock was a plant is to question Ahmed’s ability to make it, which seems very unfair to a young teen who did not choose the father he has.
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Ahmed didn’t build that. The idea that this is a setup is getting harder to ignore. The kid’s whole story of “inventing” a clock falls apart. All he did was take the cover off an alarm clock.
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Roscuro,
I”ll reserve further judgement in the interest of fairness to the boy, but I still say it stinks. We’ll see how it plays out. I’m sure we’ll hear plenty more on it as time passes. If it’s a fraud, it’ll come out.
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I have children who freeze under questioning. I have children who would have gone on to show the clock to everybody else in the school. I can believe he is a puppet. More info, please.
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AJ here,
More info?
OK.
http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/
“I have something in common with Ahmed Mohamed: as a youngster, I was also an electronics enthusiast. At his age and even earlier, I frequently took apart electronic devices – anything from my own toys, to broken things around the house, and even that dirty garbage-picked black and white TV my parents dragged home that they knew I’d have a blast playing with (I did.) I’d try and troubleshoot, repair, or sometimes just disassemble things and salvage components for future projects. I’d try and imagine how all those bits and pieces, lengths of wires, mazes of conductive circuit board traces all came together to produce an image, or a sound, or some other useful function. I wanted to know how it all worked.
Without dating myself – fast forward a bunch of years, and I’m the same way. I’ve even picked up an engineering degree over the course of those years. I don’t have to only imagine how things work anymore, I have a pretty good understanding now. When shopping for electronic devices, my first instinct is to see if there’s a way to build one myself (and, I frequently do!) When something of mine breaks, I don’t send it back, I take it as a personal challenge to get it working again. If I fail, I still salvage useful parts – they might come in handy to fix something else later. This aspect of myself – being both methodical, and curious – hasn’t changed a bit over the years.
I found the highest resolution photograph of the clock I could. Instantly, I was disappointed. Somewhere in all of this – there has indeed been a hoax. Ahmed Mohamed didn’t invent his own alarm clock. He didn’t even build a clock. Now, before I go on and get accused of attacking a 14 year old kid who’s already been through enough, let me explain my purpose. I don’t want to just dissect the clock. I want to dissect our reaction as a society to the situation. Part of that is the knee-jerk responses we’re all so quick to make without facts. So, before you scroll down and leave me angry comments, please continue to the end (or not – prove my point, and miss the point, entirely!)”
For starters, one glance at the printed circuit board in the photo, and I knew we were looking at mid-to-late 1970s vintage electronics. Surely you’ve seen a modern circuit board, with metallic traces leading all over to the various components like an electronic spider’s web. You’ll notice right away the highly accurate spacing, straightness of the lines, consistency of the patterns. That’s because we design things on computers nowadays, and computers assist in routing these lines. Take a look at the board in Ahmed’s clock. It almost looks hand-drawn, right? That’s because it probably was. Computer aided design was in its infancy in the 70s. This is how simple, low cost items (like an alarm clock) were designed. Today, even a budding beginner is going to get some computer aided assistance – in fact they’ll probably start there, learning by simulating designs before building them. You can even simulate or lay out a board with free apps on your phone or tablet. A modern hobbyist usually wouldn’t be bothered with the outdated design techniques. There’s also silk screening on the board. An “M” logo, “C-94” (probably, a part number – C might even stand for “clock”), and what looks like an American flag. More about that in a minute. Point for now being, a hobbyist wouldn’t silk screen logos and part numbers on their home made creation. It’s pretty safe to say already we’re looking at ’70s tech, mass produced in a factory.”
“For one last bit of confirmation, I located the pencil box Ahmed used for his project. During this video interview he again claims it was his “invention” and that he “made” the device – but the important thing at the moment, at 1:13, we see him showing the pencil box on his computer screen. Here it is on Amazon, where it’s clearly labeled as being 8.25 inches wide. Our eBay seller also conveniently took a photo of the clock next to a ruler to show it’s scale – about 8 inches wide. The dimensions all line up perfectly.
So there you have it folks, Ahmed Mohamad did not invent, nor build a clock. He took apart an existing clock, and transplanted the guts into a pencil box, and claimed it was his own creation. It all seems really fishy to me.”
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The author of this then goes on to discuss the rest of the incident. It’s a good piece worth consideration IMHO.
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I couldn’t agree more.
“I think the whole event – and our collective response, with everybody up to the President chiming in, says a whole lot about us. We don’t care that none of us were there and knows what happened, we jump to conclusions and assume we’re experts. We care about the story, but we don’t care about the actual facts. Headlines and click-bait are far more interesting than thinking for ourselves. We like to point out other any bit of perceived injustice or discrimination we can find – it’s practically a new national past-time. We like playing victim, and we like talking about victims – so much so we sometimes find victims where none really existed. We also like to find somebody to blame, even when there’s nobody at fault. We like to play social justice warrior on our Facebooks and Twitters, posting memes and headlines without digging in behind the sensationalism, winning bonus sensitivity points in the forms of likes and re-tweets. Once group-think kicks in, we rally around hash tags and start shouting moral outrage in a deafeningly loud national chorus. The media plays us like a fiddle, and we don’t even notice we’ve all been had.”
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So the plot thickens.
I was already thinking that President Obama should have waiting to issue that invitation until he knew more of the facts.
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Could it be something a simple as the kid wanting to impress his engineering teacher, so he cheats by pretending he built it?
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When I look at how pro-Muslim (or pro-gay or pro-transgender) the media & our president are, I remind myself that there are more layers to our society. It’s easy to look at the pro-[all those things I mentioned] status of the media, Hollywood, & liberals, & think that Muslims, gays, & transgender people all have it pretty easy in our country.
But the sad truth is that there still are too many hateful bullies out there who do discriminate against, beat up on, & even murder them because of their religion or sexuality. Maybe not as many as the left would like us to believe, but still too many.
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And I did think it was awfully distasteful that YF chose September 11 to share an article about all the Muslims (or assumed-to-be Muslims) who have been beaten or murdered for being (or assumed to be) Muslim.
Okay, I’ll shut up now, & let someone else talk. 🙂
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‘What do teens in high school do? They go from one classroom to the next.” What else do kids in high do? They have lockers. Why didn’t he leave it in his locker?
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Karen, or perhaps he simply pieced a clock together from old parts in all innocence. His use of the term ‘invented’ may simply be the mistake of a child using a term in his second language: http://makezine.com/2015/09/16/this-is-ahmed-mohameds-clock/
Why assume the worst?
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Did the engineering teacher think the device might be provocative or raise fears if seen (and is that why he told him not to “show” it to anyone)? If so, why didn’t that teacher just keep it in his classroom? And was the engineering teacher summoned or consulted when the English teacher reacted? Did anyone know that the engineering teacher could have cleared it all up?
Maybe I’ve missed parts of the story. Or maybe that’s why I feel like there’s more to this than we know.
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Well, I’d say the worst also is perhaps being assumed of the teachers and authorities on the “other” side of this (as reacting the way they did because they are anti-Muslim).
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And there he goes again. 😉
More ‘in-your-face’ behavior. Should be a fun final year *under* this president.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/09/obama-gives-pope-francis-the-finger.php
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President Obama has decided that his invited guests for the arrival of Pope Francis next week will include transgender activists, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, and a nun who criticizes church policies on abortion and euthanasia. The Vatican has objected. It notes that photos taken with the pope might be used to suggest his endorsement of activities he does not approve.
I’m no fan of this pope. Thus, I’m tempted to think that if Pope Francis wants to embrace the left, let him experience the full menu.
What I actually think, however, is that Obama’s lack of respect for the pope is inexcusable.
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Mona Charen: It’s vintage Obama. Even when hosting the most ideologically sympathetic pontiff in his lifetime (climate change, Cuba), Mr. Obama cannot restrain himself. He cannot be civil and respectful, searching for common ground. . . .
We’ve become a little inured to this president’s staggering insensitivity and passive aggression over the years. But in this case, you’d have to remove the “passive” part. This is an embarrassing moment for our country.
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Donna, both sides are making the same mistake – they are both making this story about Ahmed’s religious origins. In the words of Proverbs, “Answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou be like unto him.” A better response to the cries of ‘Islamaphobia” would be something like this thoughtful BBC take: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34277568
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Re the president’s specially selected greeting committee for the pope — someone on one of the blogs suggested they just go ahead and bathe the White House in those (tacky) rainbow lights again for the full effect.
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Today’s must-read reading:
Why I’ve Finally Given Up On the Left
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9637452/why-ive-finally-given-up-on-the-left/
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And FB, I see, is filled with clock-related posts about “a special kind of stupid” (texas), “when racial stereotyping meets scientific illiteracy,” “police need to brush up on their STEM training” (especially amusing after reading the stories about the “clock”) …
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Tychicus, interesting link. And I’ve been hearing the term fascism used lately with regard to the left (and its insistence on group think with no diversity of opinion tolerated). It’s a startling term, but one that, by definition, may be somewhat accurate).
Meanwhile, Hillary’s in rare form I see from a speech snippet today … Groan.
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Sounds likely that Biden will enter the race.
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Assuming a Muslim is a terrorist, bad. Assuming a Texan is a bigot, understandable. Huff Po commenters were congratulating themselves on how civil they were regarding the crane accident in Mecca. When I posted a link to their hateful comments on a Mississippi tornado Crickets.
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Good for you kbells – can’t tell you how often I see people running down and saying horrible things about people who are conservative — or happen to live in a (red) state they don’t like. They don’t seem to see the hypocrisy.
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Pretty scathing assessment of the pope by George Will:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/pope-franciss-fact-free-flamboyance/2015/09/18/7d711750-5d6a-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679_story.html
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Francis’s fact-free flamboyance reduces him to a shepherd whose selectively reverent flock, genuflecting only at green altars, is tiny relative to the publicity it receives from media otherwise disdainful of his church. Secular people with anti-Catholic agendas drain his prestige, a dwindling asset, into promotion of policies inimical to the most vulnerable people and unrelated to what once was the papacy’s very different salvific mission.
He stands against modernity, rationality, science and, ultimately, the spontaneous creativity of open societies in which people and their desires are not problems but precious resources. Americans cannot simultaneously honor him and celebrate their nation’s premises.
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Roscuro – I have not been assuming the worst about Ahmed. My comment about him not having built the clock is based on the information in the article that AJ shared at 2:18. In fact, that comment of mine was meant to give him the benefit of the doubt that he is not involved (or not knowingly involved) in any kind of “set up” that some are talking about.
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kBells – In some schools, students are not allowed or given time to go to their lockers between classes, or have special times when they can do so.
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Roscuro – Please let me know if you see my response to you above. Maybe this is silly of me, to want to know that you saw it, but I am one who tries to not assume the worst, & to give people the benefit of the doubt, even when I come off as naive. So your comment about me assuming the worst kind of smarted.
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I don’t assume the worst about Ahmed. He’s just a kid.
But I’ve noticed that when i assume the worst about Obama, I’m always right.
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Texas is a mean place where peaceful Muslims who bring devices to their schools are harassed. It should be kicked out of the Union. Throw Brer Texas in that briar patch!
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This story is remarkable for the ability for some people to go to great lengths to exonerate the idiocy of others.
A boy brings a clock to school. He shows it to a teacher and then stores it in his bag. It makes a noise in the next class and a teacher assumes its a bomb. Police are called. The boys is interrogated denies its a bomb and the police obviously believe or know this since the bomb squad is not called nor is the school evacuated. Yet they arrest him anyway.
Is this a demonstration of over zealous and slightly stupid police work, or Islamaphobia, or a deliberate scheme concocted by the boy’s father to grab attention. I’m going with the first but with a slight nod to the second.
The last theory requires me to believe that somehow the boy and his father had the foresight to know a teacher, the principal and the police would act in such a way the defies logic and they would have the ability to manipulate these people to generate maximum publicity. His father shouldn’t run for Sudanese president rather with this ability he should play the stock market.
I give a nod to Islamaphobia. Simply because if it was a middle class white boy bringing a clock to school, the reaction would have been different. On the other hand, if the boy had been black, a goth-type outsider, or working class, other prejudices would’ve been at play.
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If the boy had been white with a gun shaped pop tart nothing would have happened to him, oh wait,https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/boy-suspended-for-chewing-breakfast-pastry-into-a-gun-shape-will-get-hearing/2013/09/13/8326c878-1bf6-11e3-8685-5021e0c41964_story.html or a little girl talking about a bubble gun, oh wait, http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/21/us/pennsylvania-girl-suspended/index.html or an Eagle Scout with a two inch knife in his car, oh wait. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2009/10/13/new-york-eagle-scout-suspended-school-days-keeping-pocketknife-car/#
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There is an article in Huff Post on what we all can do to combat Islamophobia. You know what Muslims could do to combat Islamophobia? They could stop blowing people up.
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Islam truly does have a significant problem on its hands — the wariness and fear hasn’t exactly developed in a vacuum devoid of any logical cause.
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It is true, I think, that that the militants & terrorists are a small percentage of Muslims. The problem is that even a small percentage of 1.62 billion (the number of Muslims worldwide according to Wikipedia) is still an awful lot!
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This is a good article:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/09/20/trump_is_a_charlatan_128149.html
I do disagree with the last paragraph. The “fate of the Republic” was sealed some time ago.
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And there is a recent and ongoing history of domestic terrorism being committed still by Muslims.
I think I read that while school/police officials realized it wasn’t really a bomb, the thought was perhaps he’d brought it in as a scare tactic (since he was so non communicative). Maybe he was too scared to explain, and maybe authorities overreacted.
Both sides caused this to go further than it should have.
I don’t see any outright racism or malicious intent here.
But, hey, it’s got a hashtag and you can’t stop a movement that has a hashtag with reason or a more nuanced truth. 😦 So on they’ll go.
The clock goes to the White House!
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