'Ahmed the clock boy' stargazes with Obama

A 14-year-old Texas ninth-grader with a record of pranks and suspensions – his sister also was suspended three years earlier for threatening to bomb the school – builds a contraption with wires, computer boards and a closable case that looks to many like a bomb.

He takes it without permission to his public school, where the device interrupts a class with an electronic alarm. Then, when teachers and, later, police demand an explanation for the device, he refuses to answer, other than to say it's "a clock."

School officials, on guard amid the myriad threats to schools these days, want him out the door immediately, and police take him downtown for further questioning.

The outcome, however, isn't punishment for the student, Ahmed Mohamed of Irving, Texas.

It's invitations from some of the biggest tech names in the country, meeting President Obama at the White House for "astronomy night" Monday, a scholarship fund, a special honor from New York City, a meeting with an African head of state wanted for genocide, and more, including a Wikipedia page.

All for apparently taking a screwdriver to an off-the-shelf, commercially manufactured clock, taking it apart and hauling it to school.

But some see the ongoing episode of Ahmed's "clock invention" as a stunt to advance claims that American culture is "Islamophobic."

As an editorial at Investor's Business Daily explained: "There was no 'school project' or science assignment to justify Mohamed bringing the device to school. … Mohamed was no 'science whiz.' … The 'clock' wasn't made from scratch but just the guts of a mass-manufactured digital clock. … With its exposed wires and lack of a face, the gutted clock looked like a bomb. It also sounded like a bomb: the alarm was set to go off during English class; the beeping startled the teacher who called police."

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Further, when police questioned Mohamed, he wasn't cooperative and was described as "disrespectful," IBD noted. The police chief said the device was "intended to create a level of alarm; in other words, a hoax bomb."

Nevertheless, the thunderous acclamation the 14-year-old has received includes:

1. Honor by President Obama on social media and an invitation to the White House, where he meets the president Monday on the South Lawn at the astronomy event;

2. A meeting with Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, at a science fair;

3. Praise by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg;

4. Being named the beneficiary of a $20,000 fundraising campaign;

5. An invitation by a Canadian astronaut to visit;

6. An appearance with Dr. Oz;

7. Praise from MIT scientist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein for being "my ideal student";

8. A proclamation by New York City of "Ahmed Day";

9. A visit with Sudanese President Omar al Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide.

10. A visit with Turkey's Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu;

11. A trip to the Middle East during which, as the Huffington Post described it, he "hung with Jordan's Queen Rania";

12. A visit to Mecca as an honored guest of Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

All within a month.

After the school incident, his supporters immediately complained of "Islamophobia," and his parents withdrew their children from the school district.

But Islam expert Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch contends there was nothing anti-Islam about the incident, suggesting instead that Mohamed stepped into the snake pit of fears concerning school violence.

"Would Ahmed Mohamed's clock have been suspicious if he were a white Methodist, and would he have been arrested anyway? Without any doubt. But his arrest has become an opportunity for the purveyors of the Muslims-as-victims myth … to push hard on their spurious and insidious claim that Muslims are suffering from unwarranted scrutiny, including counter-terror programs, which should accordingly be relaxed or scrapped altogether."

Spencer posted side-by-side images of a real bomb and Mohamed's project, stating, with irony, "You're an Isamophobe if you can't tell the difference."

Illustration from Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch showing Mohamed's "clock," and a real bomb

Meanwhile, ABC News said Mohamed would be among the guests stargazing on the South Lawn of the White House Monday night.

School officials didn't back down on their three-day suspension of Mohamed, and the police maintained that their concern was legitimate.

Mohamed's Wikipedia page cites "allegations of racial profiling and Islamophobia" in the case, noting "news of the incident went viral – initially on Twitter."

School officials said they were not able to discuss the case because of privacy laws surrounding a juvenile. But school spokeswoman Lesley Weaver said, "If the family is willing to give us written permission, we would be happy to share with the public the other side of the story so they can understand the actions we took."

As WND reported, an electronics expert said the "clock" was a fraud, contending Mohamed didn't invent anything and simply took a commercial clock out of its manufactured case.

In a YouTube video that received hundreds of thousands of views in just the first 24 hours, electrical expert Thomas Talbot dissected a photo of Mohamed's clock.

"This child, nothing against him personally, never built a clock," said Talbot in the video that runs less than four minutes.

Bristol Palin, the daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. took to her Patheos blog to slam Obama for inviting Mohamed to the White House.

"This is the kind of stuff Obama needs to STAY out of," she wrote. "This encourages more racial strife that is already going on with the 'Black Lives Matter' crowd and encourages victimhood."

While alleging the "police made a mistake," she asked, "Why put more people against them? Why egg it on? Childish games like this from our president have divided our country ... even more today than when he was elected."

Palin wasn't the only one criticizing Obama for the invitation. A black Georgia teen, 13, cut a YouTube video to make the same case.

And as Gateway Pundit pointed out, Mohamed was honored by notorious terror-tied organization CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, as its "American Muslim of the Year."

CAIR has been linked by federal prosecutors to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, whose stated goal is to impose Shariah law on the entire world.

On the website of former Republican Rep. Allen West, a commentary said Mohamed's story was "getting tougher and tougher to sell," noting his recent visit to Sudan.

Sudanese leader Omar Al-Bashir "is widely known in the intelligence community as 'the Butcher of Darfur' and to this day is wanted for war crimes for his part in orchestrating the genocide in Darfur (wherein some 400,000+ have been slaughtered)," the commentary said.

Blogger and activist Pamela Geller also charged that Mohamed's father is a "long-time Islamophobia huckster."

If Ahmed "hadn't been a Muslim," she said, "this story would never have seen the light of day."

Ahmed Mohamed makes pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia with his family on Oct. 10, 2015 (Photo: Twitter, Ahmed Mohamed)

"Ahmed is not at a disadvantage because he's Muslim: On the contrary, as the reaction from Obama and the fawning media shows, he's privileged."

She also told WND Monday that the teen's decision to meet with Bashir is telling.

"Bashir is a mass murderer, wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. This is the boy who has become the poster child for 'Islamophobia,' and he meets happily with a criminal jihadist thug like Bashir," she said. "He obviously knows that there is nothing he can do that will stop the adulation from the enemedia and craven leaders like Obama.

"The adulation he is receiving is unbelievable," she added. "It makes '1984' look like a children's story. The media and political leaders, chief among them Obama, are determined to use this boy's fake story to advance the false narrative of 'Islamophobia.' Their agenda is insidious: They want to destroy the principle of 'If you see something, say something,' and replace it with 'If you see something, say something, unless it's a Muslim – then he can do whatever he wants.'"

WND Editor and founder Joseph Farah wrote that in an age of frequent school threats, officials were simply doing their duty.

"In the age of Columbine, zero tolerance and 'see something, say something,' the teacher confiscated the briefcase," he wrote. "Ahmed was summoned to the principal's office and a meeting with five police officers. He did not offer the reasonable explanation the entire country has heard since – that the device was built as a science project. Instead, he reportedly refused to say any more than, 'It's a clock.'"

Even the left-leaning Bill Maher of HBO "Real Time," said the clock looked like a bomb.

"The people at the school thought it might be a bomb, perhaps because it looks exactly like a [expletive] bomb," Maher said.