I know how you feel, Ahmed. If I ever met Obama face to face, I am sure I would want to leave the country as well.
Seriously, Ahmed Mohamed didn’t build anything. He just fit existing clockworks into a pencil box. His arrest was a hysterical overreaction, but not “Islamophobia”: school officials nationwide have acted in similar ways with non-Muslim students because of the zero tolerance policy on weaponry. There are ominous implications of this entire episode, with the inevitable effect that school officials will be wary of stopping Muslim students with suspicious objects — making Obama exceedingly irresponsible, or worse, to join in the lionization and canonization of this boy.
And now it gets even worse. Despite the whole world lining up to praise and reward Ahmed Mohamed for being a putative victim of “Islamophobia,” he and his family are clinging tenaciously to victim status. He was showered with support from “Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and Google co-founder Sergey Brin,” while “Tweets, think pieces and daytime TV segments were dedicated to dissecting how Ahmed’s situation typified racism and Islamaphobia in America,” and he “visited the Google Science Fair, met with Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir, posed with the queen of Jordan at a United Nations Summit, appeared on the ‘Doctor Oz’ show and last night, made it to the White House.”
Ahmed is the darling of the political and media elites, and yet, according to a family friend, “Everybody’s vilifying him, and he’s not a villain.” Everybody? Obama and Zuckerberg and Clinton and Sergey Brin and Omar Bashir and Ban Ki-moon and the Queen of Jordan are vilifying him? The mainstream media, with its endless series of weepy creepy pieces denouncing the school and glorifying Ahmed — they’re vilifying him?
Probably the family friend is referring to those who have pointed out that the school officials acted in a manner consistent with how school officials act, and that therefore the “Islamophobia” charge was unwarranted and the adulation of the boy misplaced. But to note those things is not to “vilify” the boy, and in any case, what are a few counter-jihad writers — who ourselves are genuinely vilified on a routine basis by the mainstream media — compared to the entire media establishment and the President of the United States? As the gifts stream in from Microsoft and Google, and Presidents and monarchs line up to shake his hand, Ahmed is traumatized by a few posts on Jihad Watch and PamelaGeller.com, and the other sites that have met the media narrative with skepticism?
This ridiculous claim, and maybe even the move to Qatar as well, is likely related to the family’s earlier and equally ridiculous claim that Ahmed, grinning broadly in photo after photo as he meets the world’s elites, has been “severely traumatized” by all this. They gave us that howler as they retained lawyers. Now, moving to Qatar to get away from the wave of “Islamophobia” that has engulfed the boy, they will likely be looking for those lawyers to deliver for them the coup de grace of this whole silly affair: a big payday.
We will be hearing more from Ahmed and his family.
“‘Clock kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar,” by Jessica Contrera, Washington Post, October 20, 2015 (thanks to Paul):
Less than 24 hours after Ahmed Mohamed met President Obama, his family decided it’s time to leave America for good.
The 14-year-old Texas boy who was arrested for bringing to school a homemade clock that authorities said resembled a bomb will soon be living in Qatar.
“After careful consideration of all the generous offers received, we would like to announce that we have accepted a kind offer from Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) for Ahmed to join the prestigious QF Young Innovators Program, which reflects the organization’s on-going dedication to empowering young people and fostering a culture of innovation and creativity,” the family said in a news release Tuesday….
President Obama personally invited the teen after his arrest last month, reaching out to him via Twitter. The president was one of many who spoke out about the implications of a 14-year-old Muslim boy accused of building a bomb, put in handcuffs and pulled out a school. Once it was discovered that the “bomb” was only a digital clock the young innovator built himself, the Irving Police said they would not be charging Ahmed with any crime.
But the spark had already been lit; Ahmed’s story went viral, with the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed bringing out legions of supporters including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Tweets, think pieces and daytime TV segments were dedicated to dissecting how Ahmed’s situation typified racism and Islamaphobia in America.
After withdrawing from school in Texas, the boy’s family embraced the opportunities that came from his brush with the law. He visited the Google Science Fair, met with Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir, posed with the queen of Jordan at a United Nations Summit, appeared on the “Doctor Oz” show and last night, made it to the White House.
He was among 300 visitors to “Astronomy Night,” a celebration of science and learning. Bill Nye the Science Guy was there, along with a number of standout students who have been recognized for scientific achievements throughout the country. Though some of those students received shoutouts during President Obama’s comments, there was no mention of Ahmed in the audience. That didn’t stop reporters from shouting to him from behind the rope lines: “Ahmed! How are you feeling?”
Perhaps that’s the question that has been left out of the viral hubbub: What has this been like for Ahmed? To go from a run-of-the-mill 14-year-old to an international symbol for stereotyping in America?
In a phone interview on Tuesday, Ahmed’s 19-year-old sister Eyman said he’s under a pressure they never imagined. It can be a good pressure: “It’s like now he’s motivated to work harder than every before,” she said. “Because people are going to be waiting to see what happened to that 14 year old kid.”
And a bad one: “It’s been really hard. Everything happens for a reason, but there’s so much stuff being said that isn’t true. . . ”
Eyman was referring to a number of conspiracy theories that appeared on the Internet about his arrest. Most attest that the incident was a pre-planned plot to get attention. Some of that skepticism stems from claims against Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Elhassan, who has run for president of Sudan and was present during a high-profile Koran burning in Florida. Bond, the family friend, said the conspiracies are why Ahmed doesn’t want to go to school in America.
“Everybody’s vilifying him, and he’s not a villain. He’s a 14 year old boy,” Bond said. “The whole world was concerned about this, and it’s impossible that anyone could have expected this international reaction.”…
Ahmed’s sister Eyman said the Middle East won’t feel too different from the U.S., except that the family will be surrounded by Muslims like themselves….