#IStandWithAhmed (or Inventing While Muslim is a thing?)

[Jayjay]

What actual evidence do you have that suggests that his child and his father are not absolutely and positively clean and truthful?

What does that even mean? What is the purpose of "positively clean and truthful?"

A kid put together a clock. The kid never said it was anything but a clock. Adults, who are supposed to know what to do,

1. thought it was bomb
2. thought it was a hoax bomb
3. now think it was a clock all along

Along the way to this startling revelation, they did nothing with the bomb then hoax bomb then clock, but they did call the police, and FIVE police officers, interrogated the boy, arrested the boy and took him into custody.

This was not about the device, it was about the boy.

And all this hubbub after, is still about the boy.

BTW, by what standard does this clock look like a bomb?

It was four police officers, not five.

The device looked like a part of a bomb enough that the teacher confiscated it, and another teacher had adviced not to show it to anyone. And we've all seen what it looks like, it's silly to claim that for a casual viewer it would obviously be a clock. And nobody thought it was an actual, functioning bomb at any point. How many times do we have to go through that canard?

 

[fromderinside]

What does that even mean? What is the purpose of "positively clean and truthful?"

A kid put together a clock. The kid never said it was anything but a clock. Adults, who are supposed to know what to do,

1. thought it was bomb
2. thought it was a hoax bomb
3. now think it was a clock all along

Along the way to this startling revelation, they did nothing with the bomb then hoax bomb then clock, but they did call the police, and FIVE police officers, interrogated the boy, arrested the boy and took him into custody.

This was not about the device, it was about the boy.

And all this hubbub after, is still about the boy.

BTW, by what standard does this clock look like a bomb?

It was four police officers, not five.

The device looked like a part of a bomb enough that the teacher confiscated it, and another teacher had adviced not to show it to anyone. And we've all seen what it looks like, it's silly to claim that for a casual viewer it would obviously be a clock. And nobody thought it was an actual, functioning bomb at any point. How many times do we have to go through that canard?

Any teacher that believes what the kid carried might be a bomb knows nothing about bombs or clocks. Why is he/she teaching at all?

See my pencil? Boom?

 

[AthenaAwakened]

What does that even mean? What is the purpose of "positively clean and truthful?"

A kid put together a clock. The kid never said it was anything but a clock. Adults, who are supposed to know what to do,

1. thought it was bomb
2. thought it was a hoax bomb
3. now think it was a clock all along

Along the way to this startling revelation, they did nothing with the bomb then hoax bomb then clock, but they did call the police, and FIVE police officers, interrogated the boy, arrested the boy and took him into custody.

This was not about the device, it was about the boy.

And all this hubbub after, is still about the boy.

BTW, by what standard does this clock look like a bomb?

It was four police officers, not five.

The device looked like a part of a bomb enough that the teacher confiscated it, and another teacher had adviced not to show it to anyone. And we've all seen what it looks like, it's silly to claim that for a casual viewer it would obviously be a clock. And nobody thought it was an actual, functioning bomb at any point. How many times do we have to go through that canard?

How do so many people know what a bomb or part of bomb looks like?

And why do you think the teacher advised that? Could it be that he knew a bigotted dumbass with the TV show 24 as his or her class in explosives, would use the device as an excuse to make this boy's day hell?

 

[Jayjay]

It was four police officers, not five.

The device looked like a part of a bomb enough that the teacher confiscated it, and another teacher had adviced not to show it to anyone. And we've all seen what it looks like, it's silly to claim that for a casual viewer it would obviously be a clock. And nobody thought it was an actual, functioning bomb at any point. How many times do we have to go through that canard?

Any teacher that believes what the kid carried might be a bomb knows nothing about bombs or clocks. Why is he/she teaching at all?

See my pencil? Boom?

Do you think the basic training for english teachers should include the fundamentals of bomb building and clock-making?

I don't know what your pencil looks like. Is it anything like this:

... wait it also has a clock! What is this devilish contraption?!

 

[Jayjay]

It was four police officers, not five.

The device looked like a part of a bomb enough that the teacher confiscated it, and another teacher had adviced not to show it to anyone. And we've all seen what it looks like, it's silly to claim that for a casual viewer it would obviously be a clock. And nobody thought it was an actual, functioning bomb at any point. How many times do we have to go through that canard?

How do so many people know what a bomb or part of bomb looks like?

And why do you think the teacher advised that? Could it be that he knew a bigotted dumbass with the TV show 24 as his or her class in explosives, would use the device as an excuse to make this boy's day hell?

I don't know if the teacher was a bigoted dumbass or not, that's why I'd like to hear her side of the story first. I'd rather not label people based on mass hysteria stoked by the media. And I'd say most of us don't know what a clock looks like, including you and me. I think barbos was the first one in the thread who accurately identified it as insides of an alarm clock. You yourself started the thread referring to the device as an invention, which turned out to be wrong. If we can't tell from pictures that it's a clock, isn't it a bit hypocritical to expect some Texan english teacher to be able to do so?

 

[ZiprHead]

You make a good point. But what if, instead of being an alarm, the clock was beeping due to low battery? To me it just seems rather odd that Ahmed would have had a cord coming out of his backpack and to the wall during class, and nobody noticed.

I rather doubt that these things designed to beep at low power, and even if they do that it would be awfully unlikely that it just happened to discharge at that particular moment. AC socket could be on the side of the desk, or in other convenient place where it's not noticeable.

My alarm clock beeps the alarm on battery backup.

 

[ZiprHead]

If someone says police was wrong "interrogating" the kid without parents or lawyers, it's fine with me, I am not a good judge on legal stuff.
But don't tell me that kid and his father are absolutely and positively clean and truthful.

What actual evidence do you have that suggests that his child and his father are not absolutely and positively clean and truthful?

A power cord.

 

[Arctish]

The device looked like a part of a bomb enough that the teacher confiscated it, and another teacher had adviced not to show it to anyone. And we've all seen what it looks like, it's silly to claim that for a casual viewer it would obviously be a clock. And nobody thought it was an actual, functioning bomb at any point. How many times do we have to go through that canard?

How do so many people know what a bomb or part of bomb looks like?

And why do you think the teacher advised that? Could it be that he knew a bigotted dumbass with the TV show 24 as his or her class in explosives, would use the device as an excuse to make this boy's day hell?

I don't know if the teacher was a bigoted dumbass or not, that's why I'd like to hear her side of the story first. I'd rather not label people based on mass hysteria stoked by the media. And I'd say most of us don't know what a clock looks like, including you and me. I think barbos was the first one in the thread who accurately identified it as insides of an alarm clock. You yourself started the thread referring to the device as an invention, which turned out to be wrong. If we can't tell from pictures that it's a clock, isn't it a bit hypocritical to expect some Texan english teacher to be able to do so?

It doesn't matter if it was a clock, or a gizmo whose sole function was to make beeping noises, or a widget that served no purpose at all. What matters is this: if no one thought it was a bomb, and Ahmed always maintained it was a clock (which it is), why the hell was the kid arrested?

I don't know the policies in Ahmed's school district, but where I live students may not bring dangerous items or weapons, real or fake, into school. Even Halloween costume accessories like plastic pirate swords are banned. So I can understand why the English teacher contacted the Principal's Office about a gadget that kinda sorta looked like it could be used to make a bomb. The English teacher isn't the one who makes the final decision on whether or not an item violates the "no weapons or other dangerous objects" rule. That's the Principal's job.

So Ahmed takes his gadget to school office, and the Principal looks it over. You said, and I agree with you, that "nobody thought it was an actual, functioning bomb at any point". The Principal recognizes that the gadget isn't a bomb. Ahmed tells him it's a clock, and that he brought it to school to show his teacher. Even if the Principal determined the gadget violates the rules (and that's a pretty big if considering it's not dangerous and not a weapon) the appropriate course of action would have been for the Principal to confiscate the item, tell the kid to get permission from the school office before bringing things like that to school, and send him back to his classes. But the Principal chose to call the cops. Why? If the Principal never thought the thing was a bomb, then what possible justification was there for summoning the police? And why did the police make an arrest?

 

[Jayjay]

How do so many people know what a bomb or part of bomb looks like?

And why do you think the teacher advised that? Could it be that he knew a bigotted dumbass with the TV show 24 as his or her class in explosives, would use the device as an excuse to make this boy's day hell?

I don't know if the teacher was a bigoted dumbass or not, that's why I'd like to hear her side of the story first. I'd rather not label people based on mass hysteria stoked by the media. And I'd say most of us don't know what a clock looks like, including you and me. I think barbos was the first one in the thread who accurately identified it as insides of an alarm clock. You yourself started the thread referring to the device as an invention, which turned out to be wrong. If we can't tell from pictures that it's a clock, isn't it a bit hypocritical to expect some Texan english teacher to be able to do so?

It doesn't matter if it was a clock, or a gizmo whose sole function was to make beeping noises, or a widget that served no purpose at all. What matters is this: if no one thought it was a bomb, and Ahmed always maintained it was a clock (which it is), why the hell was the kid arrested?

Becuase it looked like a bomb or a part of a bomb. Specificly, the timer and the case. But even a layman who knows nothing about bombs except what she saw on tv would realize looking at it that it doesn't have any explosives (and most likely it didn't even do anything), so there was no need to run for the hills or empty the school. The kid was arrested for a "hoax bomb", not "real bomb".

I don't know the policies in Ahmed's school district, but where I live students may not bring dangerous items or weapons, real or fake, into school. Even Halloween costume accessories like plastic pirate swords are banned. So I can understand why the English teacher contacted the Principal's Office about a gadget that kinda sorta looked like it could be used to make a bomb. The English teacher isn't the one who makes the final decision on whether or not an item violates the "no weapons or other dangerous objects" rule. That's the Principal's job.

So Ahmed takes his gadget to school office, and the Principal looks it over. You said, and I agree with you, that "nobody thought it was an actual, functioning bomb at any point". The Principal recognizes that the gadget isn't a bomb. Ahmed tells him it's a clock, and that he brought it to school to show his teacher. Even if the Principal determined the gadget violates the rules (and that's a pretty big if considering it's not dangerous and not a weapon) the appropriate course of action would have been for the Principal to confiscate the item, tell the kid to get permission from the school office before bringing things like that to school, and send him back to his classes. But the Principal chose to call the cops. Why? If he never thought the thing was a bomb, then what possible justification was there for summoning the police?

What's your source for the claim that "Ahmed tells him .. that he brought it to school to show his teacher"? As far as I can tell from reports I've seen is that he only insisted that it was a clock, but it's unclear if he provided any other explanation for having it. Also it is doubtful because if he had mentioned the engineering teacher, the principal could have asked the teacher about it, which should've cleared up the situation immediately.

You ask valid questions. But maybe the answer is that Ahmed was deliberately acting suspiciously and wasn't forthcoming with an explanation (because he damn well knew it looked like a bomb, and because kids do stupid things). Based on current information, I don't think we can rule it out completely, though I'd be inclined to give the kid a benefit of the doubt and rather assume it was just a horrible misunderstanding.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

How do so many people know what a bomb or part of bomb looks like?

And why do you think the teacher advised that? Could it be that he knew a bigotted dumbass with the TV show 24 as his or her class in explosives, would use the device as an excuse to make this boy's day hell?

I don't know if the teacher was a bigoted dumbass or not, that's why I'd like to hear her side of the story first. I'd rather not label people based on mass hysteria stoked by the media. And I'd say most of us don't know what a clock looks like, including you and me. I think barbos was the first one in the thread who accurately identified it as insides of an alarm clock. You yourself started the thread referring to the device as an invention, which turned out to be wrong. If we can't tell from pictures that it's a clock, isn't it a bit hypocritical to expect some Texan english teacher to be able to do so?

I didn't say the teacher.

That was you.

As for the hoax bomb, Ahmed would have had to lie and at some point have said that it was a bomb. he never did. It is not a hoax to say a clock is a clock.

As for it being an invention, has any one looked to see if he added, subtracted, or substituted any parts in the device? Did her try something he had never tried before in his tinkering, just to see if it would work?

And did anything the boy did warrant hand cuffs, arrest, and detention?

If not, why is it so hard for the adults involved to simply say I am sorry?

Why is it so hard for adults here to think that the adults involved there, the trained professionals, are the ones who messed up and not the 14 year old boy?

 

[Jayjay]

What actual evidence do you have that suggests that his child and his father are not absolutely and positively clean and truthful?

A power cord.

Speculation.

 

[Jayjay]

I don't know if the teacher was a bigoted dumbass or not, that's why I'd like to hear her side of the story first. I'd rather not label people based on mass hysteria stoked by the media. And I'd say most of us don't know what a clock looks like, including you and me. I think barbos was the first one in the thread who accurately identified it as insides of an alarm clock. You yourself started the thread referring to the device as an invention, which turned out to be wrong. If we can't tell from pictures that it's a clock, isn't it a bit hypocritical to expect some Texan english teacher to be able to do so?

I didn't say the teacher.

That was you.

Yeah, I got sucked into the mass hysteria also earlier in the thread. But now that we know a bit more, I'm willing to revise my initial opinion. Are you?

 

[AthenaAwakened]

I didn't say the teacher.

That was you.

Yeah, I got sucked into the mass hysteria also earlier in the thread. But now that we know a bit more, I'm willing to revise my initial opinion. Are you?

Well let me see,

In case you missed it

When Ahmed Mohamed went to his high school in Irving, Texas, Monday, he was so excited. A teenager with dreams of becoming an engineer, he wanted to show his teacher the digital clock he'd made from a pencil case.

The 14-year-old's day ended not with praise, but punishment, after the school called police and he was arrested.

"I built a clock to impress my teacher but when I showed it to her, she thought it was a threat to her," Ahmed told reporters Wednesday. "It was really sad that she took the wrong impression of it."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/16/us/texas-student-ahmed-muslim-clock-bomb/

Ahmed was released, no charges will be brought, and so far Ahmed has been invited to the White House, Facebook, MIT, and Harvard.

I guess inventing while Muslim is a thing now?

View attachment 4134

Here is the clock in question:

View attachment 4135

I suspect you would have some trouble getting that through airport security.

You have trouble getting hand sanitizer through air port security. Air port security is hardly a standard for the behavior of school official in Irving TX.

And I have yet to see anyone apologize to this boy. Strangers step on your toe in the check line and they apologize. These people know Ahmed and supposedly have a teacher/student relationship with him. Yet not even an oops.

My biggest problem is why (whomever "discovered" this) didn't just say, "Ahmed, what do you have there?" "Oh really, how does it work?"

It was his English teacher. His engineering teacher congratulated him on his project earlier that morning and also warned the 14 year old to not show it to anyone else, but the kid being a kid thought his English teacher would congratulate him too. He was wrong.

The police in Irving on why they arrested Ahmed

According to the BBC, “police spokesman James McLellan said that, throughout the interview, Ahmed had maintained that he built only a clock, but said the boy was unable to give a ‘broader explanation’ as to what it would be used for.”

To tell time maybe?

With exception of post about the English teacher, where did I originally make a error?

 

[Angry Floof]

Yeah, I got sucked into the mass hysteria also earlier in the thread. But now that we know a bit more, I'm willing to revise my initial opinion. Are you?

I know you weren't asking me, but I'll respond to say I'm willing to revise my initial opinion. Not entirely sure yet if the kid is borderline retarded or if he's just a little jerk, but it's not quite as one-sided as I originally thought. For the record, I'm not one who assumed he was any kind of genius, just a kid who might even have been kind of slow and needed encouragement for his efforts instead of punishment. Either way, he should not have been arrested!

 

[RavenSky]

I forgot about 9-11, that does look fishy.
The other new information is that there was no battery and he had that thing plugged during the class.
If it is true then I don't know, I am not so sure it was not a hoax of some kind. Setting up alarm in the class with it plugged would be hard and very deliberate.
Clocks usually can run for a few minutes without any external power including backup battery. So it was possible he for some reason took battery off and plugged it into AC, but that would make no sense.

Also I assumed he said he was trying to impress his engineering teacher, not english one.
Anyway, I agree with that dude, it all looks fishy, they kid who was called a bomb-maker in school, brings a fake-bomb looking device right after 9-11.

Looks like Richard Dawkins is getting in on it too:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/20/richard-dawkins-questions-ahmed-mohamed-motive-backlash

In a tweet, the scientist linked to a YouTube video entitled Ahmed Mohammed [sic] Clock is a FRAUD, in which user Thomas Talbot alleges Mohamed’s clock “is in fact not an invention. The ‘clock’ is a commercial bedside alarm clock removed from its casing”.

In his tweet, Dawkins said: “If this is true, what was his motive? Whether or not he wanted the police to arrest him, they shouldn’t have done so.” His next tweet said of the video: “This man seems to know what he’s talking about.”

Hey, Dawkins agreed with me

Yes. He seems to have gone nuts too.

Yep... on several subjects. Just because he is one of our more famous atheists doesn't make him necessarily correct or rational on all subjects.

 

[Artemus]

I suspect you would have some trouble getting that through airport security.

Actually, a colleague told me today what would happen (as he has seen it happen with students who take projects on planes to IEEE national competitions). TSA would take the project aside, swab it for nitrates, and when it came back negative would return the project and say "Sorry for the delay. Have a nice flight.

 

[bilby]

I suspect you would have some trouble getting that through airport security.

Actually, a colleague told me today what would happen (as he has seen it happen with students who take projects on planes to IEEE national competitions). TSA would take the project aside, swab it for nitrates, and when it came back negative would return the project and say "Sorry for the delay. Have a nice flight.

I was stopped for a random explosives swab at Brisbane Airport a few years ago. When the security guy pulled me aside, I said "I handle Nitroglycerine as part of my work, so this will probably set your alarm off". He said, "Oh, OK, you go then, I will test someone else".

Security Theatre.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

I don't have a problem with the device being confiscated.
I don't have a problem with Ahmed having to go to the office.

I have problems with the police being involved, interrogating, hand-cuffing, arresting, and taking into custody a kid who in the final anaysis did nothing that warranted incarceration.
I have a problem with the letter the school sent out after to all the parents.
I have a problem with the suspension.
I have a problem with the lack of apology to the boy and his family
I have a problem with the adults who have decided that belittling and berating a kid is some sort of rally for truth, justice, and the American Way.

And for all those people all over the internet who are hating on this kid because when they where 14 no one recognized their brilliance and invited them to the White House or Facebook...

Cry me a river, build a bridge and GET OVER IT!!!

- - - Updated - - -

I suspect you would have some trouble getting that through airport security.

Actually, a colleague told me today what would happen (as he has seen it happen with students who take projects on planes to IEEE national competitions). TSA would take the project aside, swab it for nitrates, and when it came back negative would return the project and say "Sorry for the delay. Have a nice flight.

They say SORRY?????

What a novel idea!

 

[RavenSky]

Does anyone here think that this situation was handled 100% correctly?

Ya, he made a clock, he acted like it was a clock and he told everybody it was a clock.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with his actions.

^^^
That

 

[RavenSky]

Before I came to this forum, I would have been surprised that there are people who would willingly offer excuses for the behavior of the school officials and the police. To my dismay, I am no longer surprised at all.

I wish I could say that I am surprised that some people will defend the school officials and the police against an innocent brown-skinned young man... especially a Muslim. The sheer vehemence and complete fabrications they are displaying would be comical if it weren't so sad.