Obama, Zuckerberg Offer Support To Muslim Student Arrested Over Homemade Clock
IRVING, Texas (CBS SF) -- President Barack Obama and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg are among the growing list of high-profile supporters of a Texas high school student who was arrested after the homemade clock he brought to school was mistaken for a possible bomb.
14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed has become a social media sensation after the incident, which his family and supporters attribute to Islamophobia because of the boy's Muslim faith.
After Mohamed showed his clock to teachers at his school in the Dallas suburb of Irving Monday, one of them told him it looked like a bomb. Shortly after he was pulled from class and taken to the principal's office.
Police officers reportedly interrogated Mohamed at his school without his parents present for hours and later handcuffed and took him to the police station for more questioning. He was never charged with any crime and the police consider the case closed. However, the school district suspended him for three days.
The hashtag #IStandWithAhmed became viral after photos of the boy in handcuffs at his school in the Dallas suburb of Irving were posted.
On Wednesday, President Obama invited Mohamed to bring his clock to the White House.
Zuckerberg also extended him an invitation.
Mohamed was wearing a NASA t-shirt when he was arrested and a NASA scientist tweeted an invitation for the teen to come visit his lab, while another tweeted an invitation to test drive the Mars Rover.
"He just wants to invent good things for mankind," Ahmed's father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, told the CBS Morning News. "But because his name is Mohamed and because of Sept. 11, I think my son got mistreated."
Alia Salem, executive director of the North Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the group was reviewing the matter. "This all raises a red flag for us: how Irving's government entities are operating in the current climate," said Salem.
In a statement Irving's current mayor, Beth Van Duyne said Wednesday "I do not fault the school or the police for looking into what they saw as a potential threat."
Van Duyne gained national headlines earlier this year after accusing mosque leaders who mediate disputes between Muslims of trying to create the country's first religious Sharia court, helping fuel theories of Muslims plotting to undermine American laws.
