There was an outpouring of support and shock on social media on Wednesday after the arrest of an Irving, Texas teenager whose homemade clock was mistaken for a “hoax bomb.” Most notably, President Barack Obama tweeted out a White House invitation to the 14-year-old inventor:
While the Iriving police department dropped its case against Ahmed Mohamed, the public response to the blatant Muslim stereotyping is surging via the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed and #NotABomb. As Buzzfeed notes, people are getting creative to show support.
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took a break from the campaign to tweet a more poignant response, encouraging Ahmed to “stay curious.”
There was also a clip with audio purportedly of Ahmed’s principal, who claims “right now, the media has only one side of the story” and says he has asked Ahmed’s parents for written permission to release the school’s side of the story.
As the overwhelmingly positive response continues to go viral, let’s hope Ahmed will take back his vow, as reported by the Dallas Morning News, to “never to take an invention to school again.”
Here are a few more highlights:
