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Muslim teen receives support from Obama, Hillary Clinton following homemade clock arrest – Metro US

Muslim teen receives support from Obama, Hillary Clinton following homemade clock arrest

Muslim teen receives support from Obama, Hillary Clinton following homemade
Twitter/@anildash

A 14-year-old Muslim student who was removed from his school in handcuffs Monday after bringing in a homemade clock will not face any charges as he continues to garner support from social media— including from the White House.

Police and school authorities in Irving, Texas have been under fire after ninth-grader Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for taking the object into MacArthur High School.

In a report published in the Guardian,Mohamed, an engineering hobbyist, showed the clock to his ninth-grade English teacher and was later put into handcuffs and escorted by two officers out of the school.

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A police spokesman told the Dallas Morning News that the police “have no information that he claimed it was a bomb. He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation. … The concern was, ‘What was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?’”

On Wednesday, police announcedMohamed would not be charged and the case had been closed, according to published reports.

“We have no evidence that there was an intention to create alarm,” Irving, Texas Police Chief Larry Boyd said, accordinf to theDaily Beast. “I couldn’t speak to whether [the device] works for sure, but it’s not an explosive device.”

The case opens another front in accusations of Islamaphobia in Irving, a Dallas suburb, where the town’s mayor, Beth Van Duyne, was recently in the national spotlight for comments insinuating Muslims were bypassing American courts in favor of Shariah law, according to the Morning News article.

In the Guardian report, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the case “raises a red flag for us. … We’re still investigating, but it seems pretty egregious.”

Electronics aficionados worldwide have also focused on the case, citing the incident as infringement on the freedom to create. Wired Magazine posted their own response:How to Make Your Own Homemade Clock That Isn’t a Bomb.

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Mohamedhas received a three-day suspension from class, and he has vowed never to take an invention to school again,acording to the Dallas Morning News.

The teen has also taken to social media, with the Twitter account@IStandWithAhmed, where he has received a flood of support, including from President Barack Obama, who urgedMohamedto bring his clock to the White House, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, New York City tech entrepeneurAnil Dashand various groups.