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The Texas high school student who was arrested because of a clock he made for school has been invited to the White House by U.S. President Barack Obama. Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was led away in handcuffs after his school alerted police that he had brought a homemade bomb to school. He was detained for several hours before authorities realised that what Ahmed had made was just a clock. Within hours of his being released, Ahmed's story went viral. The hashtag IStandWithAhmed has been retweeted hundreds of thousands of times. President Obama tweeted: "Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great."
Ahmed's arrest has once again put the spotlight in the USA on the issue of Islamophobia and of how Muslims are perceived and treated. Ahmed said that because of his religion, other kids at school called him 'bomb maker' and 'terrorist'. He said the police interrogation made him feel as though he had done something wrong. He said: "I felt like I was a criminal. I felt like I was a terrorist." To add insult to injury, his school suspended him for three days. Ahmed has caught the attention of Silicon Valley heavyweights. Twitter offered him an internship and Google invited him to a science fair and to their campus. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg said: "The future belongs to people like Ahmed."
