A Muslim ninth-grade boy was arrested in Texas after bringing to school a home-built digital clock which teachers mistook to be a bomb.Ahmed Muhammed, 14, who had a keen interest in mechanics and a talent for making mechanical gadgets, had intended to impress his engineering teacher by presenting a digital clock which he had made himself. However, the teacher instantly became wary.Describing his teacher’s reaction, Mohamed said, “He was like, ‘That’s really nice. I would advise you not to show any other teachers.’” However, during an English class, the clock beeped and when his teacher saw it, she said it looked like a bomb. Mohamed, who had made his own radios and once built a Bluetooth speaker as a gift for his friend, answered that “it doesn’t look like a bomb to me” but the clock was still confiscated and later on in the day, the boy was pulled out of his class by the principal.“They took me to a room filled with five officers in which they interrogated me and searched through my stuff and took my tablet and my invention. “They were like, ‘So you tried to make a bomb?’ I told them no, I was trying to make a clock,” the boy explained. However, the official insisted that it looked like a bomb, after which he was taken to the police headquarters, handcuffed and fingerprinted. Once there, he was interrogated and was not allowed to call his parents. Mohamed recounted that officers kept bringing up his last name. It is obvious that Ahmed was a victim of the growing xenophobia directed against Muslims in the West, and particularly in the US. It is unlikely that another child, not belonging to a Muslim family, would have been treated the same way. The pleasing aspect in an otherwise unfortunate incident is the support that has poured in for Ahmed. President Obama has invited him to the White House and the founder of Facebook has said that the future lies with persons like Ahmed. It is sad, however, that such a future can so easily be jeopardised by the paranoia that exists on the basis of a person’s faith. The way he was treated, apart from signifying the obvious bigotry that was at display, also indicates the vitriol that American Muslims, including children, have to deal with from time to time. Yes, the apologies have come. Gestures to show that the action taken was wrong have also been made. What is now needed is a more in-depth conversation about how Muslims in the West are viewed and treated by various institutions and what can be done to rectify this state of affairs. The US will need to consider these questions as a country that prides itself as a land of equal opportunities.
pk.shafaqna.com
