In the wake of Ahmed Mohamed’s story going viral, the response from the Internet has been both disgusting and inspiring. It’s easy to throw together an example of what the most vile corners of social media can produce, but I’m in a good mood today.
Ahmed’s innovative talent is getting the recognition it deserves now, and decent people from all walks of life are using the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed to voice their disgust with the fact that a promising teen was arrested for utilizing those talents – most likely due to his brown skin.
Of course, there was a shout-out from the President:
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.
— President Obama (@POTUS) September 16, 2015
And then this guy:
You’ve probably seen the story about Ahmed, the 14 year old student in Texas who built a clock and was arrested when he…
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, 16 September 2015
But in addition to the big names, the people really came through for Ahmed:
Texas, is that a watch on your wrist, or are you just happy to see me? #IStandWithAhmed #ClockOrNot pic.twitter.com/E0osWro01N
— John Reynolds (@technogust) September 16, 2015
#IStandWithAhmed #NotABomb pic.twitter.com/5UFgOGm7vZ — Thorvald (@STManson) September 16, 2015
Watch out, it’s a brown guy with a clock! #IStandWithAhmed @IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/8lzzrEakoi
— Tariq Khokhar (@tkb) September 16, 2015
The @IrvingPD wants you to be on the watch for this dangerous terrorist! #IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/2eeomXO7f7 — Bonzo! (@BonzoBeckett) September 16, 2015
In solidarity with @IStandWithAhmed CAIR-Chicago staff brought our clocks to work too. #IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/NK9CWhyfru
— CAIR-Chicago (@cairchicago) September 16, 2015
Even some future career opportunities presented themselves:
Hey Ahmed, want to visit our #science lab? We are always looking for smart minds like yours. #IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/Ylbex7WD5H — 3M (@3M) September 16, 2015
Irving, Texas’ mayor Beth Van Duyne still defends the school’s decision to have Ahmed arrested for bringing his homemade clock to class.
“I do not fault the school or the police for looking into what they saw as a potential threat,” Duyne said. “They have procedures to run when a possible threat or criminal act is discovered.”
“They follow these procedures in the sole interest of protecting our children and school personnel,” she added. “To the best of my knowledge, they followed protocol for investigating whether this was an attempt to bring a Hoax Bomb to a school campus.”
[Social media posts compiled by UNILAD] Featured image via Twitter
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