What happens when a Muslim child in Texas, who absolutely loves engineering, creates a homemade clock and brings it to school, beaming with pride and excited to show his teacher? As Shaun King notes, that child is arrested on suspicion of terrorism:
Ahmed Mohamed, a 9th grader in Irving, Texas is an engineering whiz. For fun, he makes workable gadgets and rudimentary electronics. Basically, he is what we dream an American 9th grader will be in 2015 as our nation lags behind the world in math and science education. Wanting to show his engineering teacher what he was capable of, he brought a homemade electronic clock to the school.
What should've been a beautiful moment of congratulatory pride, quickly turned into a full fledged nightmare for Ahmed. His English teacher, who decided the clock looked like a bomb, notified the principal, who called campus police, who called the county police, who interrogated Ahmed, arrested him on the spot and took him to jail.
Mind you—he's a 9th grader in a NASA shirt and the clock, which anyone could see was not attached to any explosives of any kind, was harmless. He never pretended it was a bomb, never told anyone it was a bomb. It was a clock.
Image via Anil Dash.
Indeed, this should have been a beautiful moment, a moment about which Ahmed said, "
It made me feel like I was not human."
However, thanks to the reach of social media, Ahmed is being told by the entire world that he is more than human, he is beautiful. On Twitter, #StandWithAhmed is currently the top trending topic not just in the United States, but worldwide. Millions of people are speaking directly to Ahmed, telling him what his school failed to articulate: you are amazing!
Ahmed is being overwhelmed with support, with messages confirming that there is absolutely nothing wrong with him, messages confirming that his school and the authorities are the ones in the wrong, the ones not acting with humanity.
While Ahmed's arrest was an incredibly ugly and traumatic instance of Islamophobia and racism, the moment being created in his arrest's wake is a beautiful one.
This is the power of social media when used for good, the power to counter hatred and speak louder than any school principle or local sheriff ever could.
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, recently published by Oneworld Publications.