Court: Clock boy, father, on hook for $200,000 legal fees

Ahmed Mohamed, a.k.a. "Clock Boy"

A Texas appeals court has affirmed the dismissal in its entirety of a defamation lawsuit filed by Mohamed Mohamed on behalf of himself and his son, the "clock boy" who took to school a device that looked like a briefcase bomb and then cashed in on the ruckus with multiple television appearances and the like.

The Texas Court of Appeals for the Fifth District in Dallas said the ruling was at least partly because of the links between "A.M.," the boy, and his father and the Council for American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy organization founded by Hamas operatives.

The ruling closed down the effort by the father and son to collect damages from several media personalities who commented on the stunt when it developed, and to avoid paying their legal fees and charges.

"The purpose of this CAIR-driven lawsuit was to intimidate into silence those who might comment publicly on the connection between jihad, terrorism, Shariah and Islam," said David Yerushalmi, co-founder of the American Freedom Law Center, which worked on the case.

TRENDING: 'Promotes hate of Christians': Baseball stars team up to blast drag promotions

"This case was a classic Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation or 'SLAPP' case and should never have been filed. The Texas courts have confirmed this once and for all."

Sued were the Center for Security Policy, CSP's Jim Hanson and talk-radio host Ben Shapiro.

They were targeted by Mohamed because of statements they made "about the connection between the Clock Boy hoax bomb affair and the attendant media frenzy created in large part by his father Mohamed, and how this was all part of civilization jihad driven by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group in the United States that promotes civilization jihad through lawsuits," AFLC explained.

"The Texas appeals court specifically ruled that Mohamed had not made out a case for defamation because CSP and Hanson had based their statements in large part on the involvement of CAIR, which the court noted, quoting first Shapiro and then Hanson, was 'an organization … the federal government had linked to Islamic terrorist supporters as an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism case.' The court also noted that 'CAIR is known to be an Islamist organization with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.'"

The appeals court noted that the boy was arrested for the stunt, and the charges later were dropped, but he also was suspended from the school for the incident.

"Both Hanson and Shapiro relied upon the ties between Mohamed and CAIR," the court found. Specifically, the court wrote, "Hanson stated in his affidavit that 'This article made it clear in my mind that CAIR – through its executive director, Ms. Salem – was connected to the Mohamed family and was directing the public relations aspect of the controversy for the Mohamed family."

The court noted that CAIR "co-hosted" a press conference about the incident almost as soon as it developed.

The comments the personalities made included that the clock incident was a "PR stunt" or "a staged event" and the objective was to create an "influence operation."

Regarding the fees the lower court awarded the winners in the lawsuit, the appeals court said, "Mohamed argues that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to reconsider its award of attorney's fees."

After a review, the court said, "we affirm the trial court's denial of the motion for reconsideration. Mohamed's documents fail to provide any evidence that the American Freedom Law Center agreed to represent Hanson and CSP on a pro bono basis in this case."

Robert Muise, AFLC's other co-founder, said: "AFLC was formed in large measure to take on Islamists like CAIR who use and abuse the legal system with their cynical form of lawfare to undermine our constitutional liberties – notably free speech. We have confronted these lawsuits across the country in federal and state courts and have defeated CAIR and its minions at every turn. When appropriate, we have won sanctions. This lawsuit has proven to be no different. We will continue to confront CAIR and other Islamists organizations in any and all legal fora."

A lawsuit by the Mohameds against the city of Irving, Texas, and its school district also had been dismissed.

The case developed when the boy took to school a homemade device that looked like a bomb.

The youth, after his arrest, held news conferences, was invited by then-President Obama to the White House, bragged about his overseas travels and then alerted reporters when he was returning to the United States. The Council on American Islamic Relations, which was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror-financing case, was involved in the publicity campaign.

Mohamed claimed he suffered "severe psychological trauma" because of the case, which resulted in a month-long world tour that included:

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

In "Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance," renowned activist Pamela Geller provides proven practical guidance on how freedom lovers can stop jihadist initiatives in local communities.