Muslim boy, 14, arrested for making clock mistaken for bomb
IRVING, Texas (AP) - A 14-year-old Muslim boy has been arrested in North Texas after a high school teacher decided that a homemade clock he brought to class could be a bomb.
Ahmed Mohamed, who enjoys tinkering with electronics, proudly took the clock to MacArthur High in Irving on Monday.
But one teacher raised concerns that it looked like a bomb, prompting the school principal and several police officers to question him, search his belongings and march him from the school in handcuffs.
Mohamed's family provided this photo of the student in handcuffs to activist Anil Dash:
Police don't believe the device is dangerous, but say it could be mistaken for a fake explosive.
Mohamed was suspended from school for three days, but he has not been charged.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is investigating, saying the incident is typical of the negative attitudes toward Muslims in Irving.
Mohamed told the Dallas Morning News says he likes to invent things and bought the necessary items to build the clock at Target. Watch him explain what happened to him here:
Online support for Mohamed is growing with social media users offering ideas via a Google Form of other items the boy can make.