Ahmed Mohamed, an immigrant from Sudan, was just an ordinary 14 year old Texas high school student with a passion for science. Just last week, Ahmed brought a homemade digital clock to school to show off to his teacher. With hopes of becoming an engineer one day, Ahmed was quite proud of his accomplishment.
Rather than receiving praise, Ahmed was placed in handcuffs. “I built a clock to impress my teacher but when I showed it to her, she thought it was a threat to her,” Ahmed stated when interviewed by the media. “It was really sad that she took the wrong impression of it.”
“They arrested me and they told me that I committed the crime of a hoax bomb, a fake bomb,” he added. Ahmed was suspended for three days and eventually left the school.
Ahmed’s incident sparked an outrage on traditional and social media due to his religion and race (he is Muslim). Ahmed was immediately looked upon as a terrorist with a potential bomb in his hands.
Companies like Facebook and Google reached out to Ahmed to offer him encouragement. “Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed,” said Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.
It didn’t stop there as US President Barack Obama invited Ahmed to the White House and praised him for his love of science. The bosses at Reddit and Twitter even offered Ahmed an internship!
But that’s not all. Microsoft also participated in the acts of kindness to Ahmed by sending him a nice package of goodies including a brand new Surface Pro 3 and a Microsoft Band!
Enjoyed delivering box of tech goodies gifted by @microsoft to Ahmed! Mashallah! @IStandWithAhmed #IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/JHEElRMVwu
— Alia Salem (@aliarsalem) September 19, 2015
