Silicon Valley Stands With Muslim Teen Ahmed Mohamad

[RiazHaq]

Haq's Musings: Silicon Valley Opposes Islamophobia: Celebrates Texas Teen Ahmed

A 14-year-old Muslim teenager Ahmed Mohammad was arrested in Texas when he showed his teacher a clock he had built at home. The teacher mistook the student's invention for a bomb and called in the police who handcuffed the Sudanese-American teen and escorted him down the hallway, out the school building and to a juvenile detention center.


The incident was highlighted by the Council on American Islamic Relations, a American Muslim Civil Rights group, as another egregious manifestation of anti-Muslim bigotry that prevails in many parts of the United States.

There has been significant outpouring of support for Ahmed since the incident came to light. President Barack Obama invited Ahmed to the White House via a tweet that said: "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". It was followed by a tweet from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton that said: "Assumptions and fear don't keep us safe—they hold us back. Ahmed, stay curious and keep building.

Many top Silicon Valley technology executives also took to the social media to support Ahmed. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg weighed in, inviting the Texas teen to visit the tech giant's Menlo Park campus. Google invited Mohamed to its annual youth science fair in Mountain View this weekend. And Box CEO Aaron Levie also extended an invitation. Twitter has also extended an invitation to Mohammad to visit its office in San Francisco. Popular twitter hashtag #IStandWithAhmed in support of Ahmed Mohamad has been trending for several days now.

Some elite US schools, including Harvard and MIT, have invited Ahmed Mohamad to visit their campuses.

Would this story have found much traction without the social media? I doubt it. It was the growing power of the new media that led to the teen's release from custody on Wednesday after 2 days of detention. During this time, he was elevated to the status of an American folk hero.

As we celebrate the meteoric rise of Ahmed Mohammad to celebrity status, we must not forget the long history of bigotry and violence against natives and minorities in this country. Even President Obama has been a frequent target of racists. Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump's vicious attacks on Mexican immigrants and his rapid rise in the national polls is an indication that racial and religious bigotry remain alive and well in the United States. We must support organizations such as CAIR and ACLU that stand against this tide to assure implementation of the Bill of Rights for all Americans, including women and minorities. We must also make use of social media to highlight social problems that are spun or left uncovered by the mainstream commercial media.

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Haq's Musings: Silicon Valley Opposes Islamophobia: Celebrates Texas Teen Ahmed

 

[VCheng]

He showed it to his science teacher first, which was okay, then took it to the English class and set up a timer to go off in the middle of it, which was not okay. Why do you suppose he did that, and what were the teachers supposed to do with his actions?

Source: Muslim student arrested in US after home-built clock mistaken for bomb | Page 7

 

[RiazHaq]

He showed it to his science teacher first, which was okay, then took it to the English class and set up a timer to go off in the middle of it, which was not okay. Why do you suppose he did that, and what were the teachers supposed to do with his actions?

Source: Muslim student arrested in US after home-built clock mistaken for bomb | Page 7

Are you suggesting it's an arrest-able offense?

Would he have been handcuffed and sent to jail if his name was not Ahmed Mohamad?

 

[Imran Khan]

media can make hero- zero whatever

 

[vsdoc]

Hope the kid does not become a poster boy for the loonies and grows up warped and does something stupid later on in life.

To be honest I did not know about this timer thing.

I was all the while thinking it was a harmless science project display sort of thing.

 

[nForce]

Are you suggesting it's an arrest-able offense?

Would he have been handcuffed and sent to jail if his name was not Ahmed Mohamad?

Probably not. But who will take the chance ? Better safe than sorry. That's what the reality is.

 

[VCheng]

Are you suggesting it's an arrest-able offense?

Would he have been handcuffed and sent to jail if his name was not Ahmed Mohamad?

Once police were called, it was enough probable cause to arrest anyone who had done something like that. Once the investigation was complete, he was let go. The Police did everything correctly from a legal standpoint.

Quick, this metal case is beeping loudly in English Class. What do you expect the teacher to do with your kid in the class too?

 

[RazorMC]

He's brown, a Muslim and has Mohamed in his name. They are reasons enough for racist bigots to call the police.

Didn't expect more from a school teacher in the US.

 

[RiazHaq]

Once police were called, it was enough probable cause to arrest anyone who had done something like that. Once the investigation was complete, he was let go. The Police did everything correctly from a legal standpoint.

Quick, this metal case is beeping loudly in English Class. What do you expect the teacher to do with your kid in the class too?

He was held for 2 days and only let go Wednesday after the social media buzz started and #IStandWithAhmed started trending on twitter.

 

[VCheng]

He was held for 2 days and only let go Wednesday after the social media buzz started and #IStandWithAhmed started trending on twitter.

He was let go as soon as the investigation was complete.

 

[nForce]

BTW...why are the Pakistanis so concerned about this incident ? I saw quite a number of threads on this.

 

[Menace2Society]

BTW...why are the Pakistanis so concerned about this incident ? I saw quite a number of threads on this.

Its called empathy. Learn it, its good for the soul.

 

[Nefarious]

Idiot teachers, you can see from a mile it isn't dodgy. Cops even more stupid taking 2 days to figure it out.

Anyway,nice, hope he accepts the invitations and has a good time.

 

[VCheng]

BTW...why are the Pakistanis so concerned about this incident ? I saw quite a number of threads on this.

Pakistanis love to hate USA, dontcha know?

(They only want dollars and F-16s.)

 

[RiazHaq]

Harassment, punishment in school doesn't end with Ahmed #IStandWithAhmed by @mathewrodriguez #Islamophobia Meet the Muslim Students Who Have Been Harassed at School for Less than a Clock - Mic …


"In middle school, I was physically grabbed by a security guard and dragged across the lunch room," Talia, a 20-year-old Muslim college student from Queens, New York, told Mic. Not knowing which door to use, Talia (who did not disclose her last name because of her undocumented status) entered her middle school cafeteria through the wrong door for the second time. "He just grabbed me, dragged me across the lunchroom and took me to the other side. Nobody said anything," she said.

Talia never reported the incident, to avoid interaction with authorities. "You're supposed to do what authority tells you to do and as an undocumented person, I've always been taught to stay safe, put your head down, go to school and don't push back or anything," she said.

Talia is not alone. According to a 2006 report from Desis Rising Up and Moving, 26% of South Asian students are afraid to give any kind of personal information to authorities and among South Asian non-U.S. citizens, the number is 34%. The report, "Education Not Deportation," details South Asian students' experiences in New York City schools.

Talia is a youth leader at DRUM, a community-based organization that organizes working-class South Asian adults and youth around issues of racial and educational justice in Jackson Heights, a neighborhood in Queens.

Rishi Singh, educational justice organizer at DRUM, told Mic that Talia's stories reflect an increasing tension in New York City's public schools — and nationwide — since the adoption of controversial zero-tolerance policies.

"I think all students, particularly students of color, they don't feel like their school is a school, they feel like it's a jail," he told Mic. "They feel they've done something wrong every time they go through scanning in the morning."

Many New York City school students, including the Muslim students who spoke to Mic, must pass through a metal detector every day, which the New York Civil Liberties Union called "a potential flashpoint of confrontation between [school safety officers] and students," in a 2013 report on the school-to-prison pipeline.

"Every time I would walk through, I would get wanded," Talia said. Over time, she knew to point out to security guards where the metal pins were under her hijab, though that wasn't always sufficient. She was once asked to go to the bathroom to have her hijab inspected. The only female police officer available to search her was a sergeant carrying a gun.

"I was like, 'I'm not taking off my hijab, I'm not doing it,'" she said. They ended up giving her a rougher-than-usual inspection. "They were feeling my hijab, grabbing my hijab and my hair. I refused to go to the bathroom with the sergeant."

------------

DRUM's 2006 report found that 85% of South Asian students surveyed reported harassment by school or police authorities. Thirty-one percent said their harassment was due to actual or perceived race or ethnicity, while 29% felt it was due to actual or perceived religion and 17% felt the harassment was because of their immigration status.

For Singh and other DRUM leaders, this means that school's approach to justice must be reframed as restorative, rather than punitive, meaning infractions would not pile up and push students out of school. Singh hopes that schools can embrace a model where parties involved in confrontation can confront each other to find common ground.