Muslim teen who created clock and was wrongly arrested now enjoys support across all media

When Ahmed Mohamed went to his high school in Irving, Texas (USA) on Monday (14 September), 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 for what police initially -- and falsely -- said was a hoax bomb.

Fourteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, wrongly accused of making a hoax bomb

In an interview with an American TV channel, Ahmed said he was pulled out of class at MacArthur High School by his principal and five police officers and taken to a room where he was questioned for about an hour and a half and not allowed to call his parents.

 Said the teenager,

"I felt like I was a criminal. I felt like I was a terrorist. I felt like all the names I was called. Just because of my race and religion.”

Part of the digital clock Ahmed Mohamed made from a pencil case

By mid-week however, his face and name were splashed across traditional and social media, and he'd received thousands of tweets and Facebook posts of encouragement.

President Barack Obama invited him to the White House and praised his love of science. Leaders at Reddit and Twitter offered him internships. Google executives said they were reserving Ahmed a spot at their weekend science fair and MIT asked him to visit the campus. Even Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg invited him to visit the company's headquarters, posting,

"Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed."

American President Barack Obama has invited Ahmed Mohamed to the White House, shown above

Ahmed is not going back to MacArthur and is transferring to another school. Although at first embarrassed by what happened, he was lifted and emboldened by the widespread support he has received. Said Ahmed,

"I was scared at the moment, but now I feel really happy. I'm getting all this support from all over the world. And the support isn't just for me but for everyone who has been through this. I will fight for you if you can't stand up for yourself."

Ahmed Mohamed is excited to visit the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus, shown here as viewed from a helicopter

(All images - credit: Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licence)