On Monday, Sept. 14, Texan high school student Ahmed Mohamed was arrested at his school for bringing in a homemade clock that was mistaken for a bomb.
Ahmed, 14, brought the clock to his engineering class to show his teacher his skills. Instead of receiving praise, however, the teacher called the principle, who in turn called local police. Ahmed was then questioned by police in the principal's office before being arrested and detained at the police station. He has since been released and no charges will be brought against him.
The damage was already done, however, and the fallout of this event sparked outrage on Twitter, with people trending the tag #IStandWithAhmed. Even the president tweeted to the student, saying "Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House?"
Ahmed made a Twitter account this past Wednesday to thank everyone for the support, and to encourage people to band together so that "racial inequality" will not happen again. The school has yet to comment in depth on the situation due to the federal student privacy law, according to the New York Times.
The arrest goes to show that Islamaphobia is still very real today. It can be argued that if someone of another race came in with a homemade clock, there wouldn't be a second guess as to what it was. But because of stigma and stereotypes attached to people of Ahmed's race, he was seen as a threat.
It should also be noted that this even took place around the same time as the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an event that not only changed the lives for many Americans, but especially changed the lives for many Middle-Eastern Americans. Often we hear countless stories of the families who lost someone in the towers or of firefighters being heroic, saving people from the burning buildings. And those stories are heartwarming and they show American heroism and how one nation can band together to help those who grieve.
The stories that we don't hear enough of are of those who began to get dirty looks after that day because of their race. The stories that we don't hear enough of are of the children who started to get bullied because they were Muslim. The stories that we don't hear enough of are of those who were persecuted because they were viewed as a viable threat on the sole base of how they looked like.
As long as these stereotypes continue, something like what happened to Ahmed is bound to happen again. The cycle will never stop unless we learn to not judge someone based on their appearance and beliefs and teach that same ideology to others as well. We need to stand by people like Ahmed who are in danger of discrimination, and stand up for them when we see it happen.
