The attention of the nation and social media users has been captured in the last few days by a 14-year-old scientist named Ahmed Mohamed. On Monday morning, Ahmed brought a homemade clock to school with the intention of showing his teachers what he had created. Upon suspicion by a teacher that the clock was the inner workings of a bomb, Ahmed was arrested.
Since then support for Ahmed has been dominating social media under the hashtag #IStandwithAhmed. From President Barack Obama to actress Sophia Bush, people are aligning themselves with the movement and tweeting their support for Ahmed.
So what does it mean to stand with Ahmed? It means to support ingenuity and inventiveness in everyone. It means stating your belief that American support for the education of our children should transcend all races, religions, ethnicities and genders. It means that the color of a person's skin or their religion does not lessen their achievements.
Standing with Ahmed does not mean that you are supporting reduced security or that you are denying the danger of a bomb threat.
We live in a post 9/11 world and we have been taught to live in fear. I am not one to pretend that a bomb threat in a school should be taken lightly, that the resulting safety of children should be taken lightly. But neither should the unjust arrest of a 14-year-old boy.
The legacy of 9/11 is not for teachers to assume that because a boy with a Muslim name brings a science project to school, he is making a bomb. And we cannot let it become that. We need to support anyone who embraces all the opportunities that they have. We need to support our students who display their intelligence, aptitude and passion for their education.
Ahmed Mohamed is not a terrorist, and he is not a threat. He is an American teenager who has a passion for science. If we don't recognize that for someone to see him as such was a problem, then we as a nation have a problem.
To stand with Ahmed is to stand with the future of America: passionate and intelligent children. If we want to be the kind of country that is looked to as a pillar of democracy and equality, then we need to be the kind of people who can get behind someone like Ahmed and who can stand up to those who would initiate this kind of reaction to his work.
And, for the record, #IStandwithAhmed.
