A boy, a clock, and the anatomy of Islamophobic character assassination in 3 Acts

[Coyote]

Cast of Characters:
Ahmed - a 14 yr old 9th grade student who likes to tinker and build things.
The Voices - scores of online "experts" who purport to "know things" by looking at "photographs" or online "rumors" unsubstantiated by any evidence.
Mayor Van Duyne - an elected official who's speechs about Islam have set the town tone for this play.

Complete Script for this Drama is here: Craze over teen clockmaker from Irving shifts from celebrity to conspiracy

Prelude:

...A week after police called a homemade clock that Ahmed brought to school a “hoax bomb,” then dropped the charge,viral posts have called the 14-year-old everything from a fraudulent inventor to an Islamist plant who planned all along to get himself handcuffed.

Most of these theories cite no evidence, many contradict each other and some clash with known facts — like a statement from Irving City Hall that the MacArthur High freshman never intended to frighten anyone with his circuit-stuffed pencil case...

ACT ONE
Early rumors Phase 1 -- it's a COUNTDOWN CLOCK!!!!

... A Facebook post by a self-professed electrical engineer spread by the thousands after the teen hit the news. The writer claimed Ahmed had made no ordinary clock, but a “COUNTDOWN clock” that would have alarmed any teacher.

But the only evidence the post offered was a stock photo of a countdown clock next to the Irving police photo of Ahmed’s device. That countdown clock’s dimensions didn’t match the screen that Ahmed had soldered to a circuit board and strapped inside a small case.

If Ahmed hadn’t made a countdown clock, some wondered, perhaps he’d made nothing at all.

Early rumors Phase 2 - he's a fraud, no genius and the clock is nothing.

“Why are you so annoyed about this kid?” someone asked Richard Dawkins on Twitter, after the famous biologist linked a YouTube video claiming the boy had merely rearranged a store-bought clock inside a case.

“Because he disassembled & reassembled a clock (which is fine) & then claimed it was his ‘invention’ (which is fraud),” Dawkins wrote back.

Ahmed, who was famous in middle school for bringing handmade gizmos to class and robotics club, did tell reporters who knocked on his door last week that the clock was “my invention.”

But Ahmed also said the clock was a “simple thing … that’s easy to make”that he’d hoped his new high school teachers would understand. He said he’d soldered it together in about 20 minutes. It was no match for the hand-wired, micro-soldered radio transmitter he showed off on his bedroom floor.

ACT TWO- Attack the Family

Scene 1: the Father:

On his blog, national columnist Mark Steyn called Ahmed’s father “a belligerent Muslim activist,” citing Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed’s occasional runs for president of Sudan.

Steyn didn’t mention that Mohamed had campaigned in his native country by promising to end its links with terrorism and abolish repressive laws. A devotee of a mystical branch of Islam called Sufism, Mohamed also made the news a few years ago for trying to convince a Quran-burning pastor in Florida that the book espoused peace.

Scene 2: Attack the Sister

But after Mavericks owner Cuban told reporters that he’d heard Ahmed’s sister feeding the boy answers to his questions, many have wondered if the family is coaching the boy through his fame.

The Mohameds have largely managed Ahmed’s first week of celebrity via cacophonous family meetings in a cramped living room. The father rushed in and out of the house as he struggled to run his passenger pickup company between reporter visits,and Ahmed’s teenage sister fielded press requests to her Gmail account.

The family sounded surprised to learn over the weekend that they were being accused of conspiracy.

“There is truth, and there is mischief,” said the boy’s father.

“Ahmed is just a 14-year-old boy who’s trying to do what he loves to do,” said his sister, Eyman Mohamed, 18. “Just trying to build.”

Scene 3: Propagation of Conspiracy Theories Masquerading as Truth but Lacking Evidence

• Countdown clock theory
• Fraudulent clock theory
• Arrested on purpose theory

No theory that The News has reviewed cites any evidence that Ahmed, who routinely brought electronic creations to his middle school and said he wanted to impress high school teachers, planned to get handcuffed and hit the news. A statement sent out Tuesday from Irving City Hall acknowledged that a police “investigation determined the student apparently did not intend to cause alarm bringing the device to school.”

• Muslim activists theory

Scene 4: The Conclusion

The family appeared surprised by Ahmed’s sudden fame, and in early days his teenage sisters helped him manage countless media requests and offers from corporations. A reporter for The News visited Ahmed’s house several times after the boy’s story went viral. The family let the reporter talk to Ahmed alone, and no one coached him during these visits.

 

[Moonglow]

No entre?

 

[Coyote]

No entre?

 

[daws101]

needs some prolog music.

 

[Coyote]

needs some prolog music.

 

[Coyote]

Critical Reviews:

Marcus Jauregui: An Irving teacher draws three lessons from Ahmed’s adventure

Lesson 1: Kids Make Mistakes

Ahmed is a young man who is still learning. He’s just a few weeks into his freshman year. Like all kids, he might have made a misjudgment along the way. Unfortunately, instead of having a crucial conversation to help him better understand our post-9/11 world — the only world he’s ever known — we missed an important teachable moment by jumping straight to the punitive path.

As educators in the 21st Century, we must provide our students with the skills they need to survive in a world that’s constantly changing. Our focus should be on equipping them with the knowledge they need to make better decisions in the future instead of punishing and stifling them. Ahmed believed his teachers would be excited about his invention. Instead he was met with fear.

Lesson 2: Adults Make Mistakes, Too

I wish I had space to write about all the times I got it wrong as an educator. Suffice it to say that in seven years of teaching, I have made more than my share of mistakes. I’m certain that the administrators at MacArthur High School didn’t wake up that morning with the intent of jailing a Muslim teenager. I’m also certain that throughout the course of the day, they struggled to make the right decision in this “damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don’t” world, where social media has become our courtroom.

Was the teacher right to question Ahmed’s invention? Yes. Should the police have interrogated a 14-year-old boy outside his parents’ presence? No. Were mistakes made? Certainly. Have the adults learned from this? I hope so. Only a handful of people will ever know how this situation played out throughout the course of the day. As an educator, I’m prepared to expect the unexpected. I’ve also learned that when I get it wrong, an apology goes a long way.​

 

[Derideo_Te]

The entire extremist rightwing doofi outrage over this clock was aptly summarized by Macbeth.

SCENE V. Dunsinane. Within the castle.

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Wm. Shakespeare​

 

[tinydancer]

This kid was caught in the middle of his father's desire to destroy the mayor.

This is a fucking no brainer.

 

[Pete7469]

Mohamed also made the news a few years ago for trying to convince a Quran-burning pastor in Florida that the book espoused peace.

Which is by itself a goddamned lie.

That book is an instructions manual on how to be a savage. Islime isn't a "religion of peace", it's a cult of slavery and death. If I wasn't already aware that bed wetting liberals have to be weapons grade stupid in the first place I might be dumbfounded on how you idiots can be steadfast apologists for a cult that enslaves women, marries 9 year old daughters off to be raped for the rest of their lives, mutilated their genitals, kills fags, brutalizes animals and slaughters people who refuse to convert.

Just to remind you moonbats, they don't give atheists a chance to convert. You're marked for death just like hindus, buddists and every other religion "not of the book".

 

[Coyote]

This kid was caught in the middle of his father's desire to destroy the mayor.

This is a fucking no brainer.

Evidence?

 

[tinydancer]

Whoopsies unless you throw a fucking idiotic President into the midst.

 

[ClosedCaption]

Cast of Characters:
Ahmed - a 14 yr old 9th grade student who likes to tinker and build things.
The Voices - scores of online "experts" who purport to "know things" by looking at "photographs" or online "rumors" unsubstantiated by any evidence.
Mayor Van Duyne - an elected official who's speechs about Islam have set the town tone for this play.

Complete Script for this Drama is here: Craze over teen clockmaker from Irving shifts from celebrity to conspiracy

Prelude:

...A week after police called a homemade clock that Ahmed brought to school a “hoax bomb,” then dropped the charge,viral posts have called the 14-year-old everything from a fraudulent inventor to an Islamist plant who planned all along to get himself handcuffed.

Most of these theories cite no evidence, many contradict each other and some clash with known facts — like a statement from Irving City Hall that the MacArthur High freshman never intended to frighten anyone with his circuit-stuffed pencil case...

ACT ONE
Early rumors Phase 1 -- it's a COUNTDOWN CLOCK!!!!

... A Facebook post by a self-professed electrical engineer spread by the thousands after the teen hit the news. The writer claimed Ahmed had made no ordinary clock, but a “COUNTDOWN clock” that would have alarmed any teacher.

But the only evidence the post offered was a stock photo of a countdown clock next to the Irving police photo of Ahmed’s device. That countdown clock’s dimensions didn’t match the screen that Ahmed had soldered to a circuit board and strapped inside a small case.

If Ahmed hadn’t made a countdown clock, some wondered, perhaps he’d made nothing at all.

Early rumors Phase 2 - he's a fraud, no genius and the clock is nothing.

“Why are you so annoyed about this kid?” someone asked Richard Dawkins on Twitter, after the famous biologist linked a YouTube video claiming the boy had merely rearranged a store-bought clock inside a case.

“Because he disassembled & reassembled a clock (which is fine) & then claimed it was his ‘invention’ (which is fraud),” Dawkins wrote back.

Ahmed, who was famous in middle school for bringing handmade gizmos to class and robotics club, did tell reporters who knocked on his door last week that the clock was “my invention.”

But Ahmed also said the clock was a “simple thing … that’s easy to make”that he’d hoped his new high school teachers would understand. He said he’d soldered it together in about 20 minutes. It was no match for the hand-wired, micro-soldered radio transmitter he showed off on his bedroom floor.

ACT TWO- Attack the Family

Scene 1: the Father:

On his blog, national columnist Mark Steyn called Ahmed’s father “a belligerent Muslim activist,” citing Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed’s occasional runs for president of Sudan.

Steyn didn’t mention that Mohamed had campaigned in his native country by promising to end its links with terrorism and abolish repressive laws. A devotee of a mystical branch of Islam called Sufism, Mohamed also made the news a few years ago for trying to convince a Quran-burning pastor in Florida that the book espoused peace.

Scene 2: Attack the Sister

But after Mavericks owner Cuban told reporters that he’d heard Ahmed’s sister feeding the boy answers to his questions, many have wondered if the family is coaching the boy through his fame.

The Mohameds have largely managed Ahmed’s first week of celebrity via cacophonous family meetings in a cramped living room. The father rushed in and out of the house as he struggled to run his passenger pickup company between reporter visits,and Ahmed’s teenage sister fielded press requests to her Gmail account.

The family sounded surprised to learn over the weekend that they were being accused of conspiracy.

“There is truth, and there is mischief,” said the boy’s father.

“Ahmed is just a 14-year-old boy who’s trying to do what he loves to do,” said his sister, Eyman Mohamed, 18. “Just trying to build.”

Scene 3: Propagation of Conspiracy Theories Masquerading as Truth but Lacking Evidence

• Countdown clock theory
• Fraudulent clock theory
• Arrested on purpose theory

No theory that The News has reviewed cites any evidence that Ahmed, who routinely brought electronic creations to his middle school and said he wanted to impress high school teachers, planned to get handcuffed and hit the news. A statement sent out Tuesday from Irving City Hall acknowledged that a police “investigation determined the student apparently did not intend to cause alarm bringing the device to school.”

• Muslim activists theory

Scene 4: The Conclusion

The family appeared surprised by Ahmed’s sudden fame, and in early days his teenage sisters helped him manage countless media requests and offers from corporations. A reporter for The News visited Ahmed’s house several times after the boy’s story went viral. The family let the reporter talk to Ahmed alone, and no one coached him during these visits.

This post should be nominated for post of the year. This is exactly how it happened and everyday they have NEW SHOCKING evidence that isnt evidence at all.

 

[Pete7469]

This kid was caught in the middle of his father's desire to destroy the mayor.

This is a fucking no brainer.

Yes but you're talking about someone without a brain. The kid was obviously fishing for this reaction.

 

[tinydancer]

What the fuck really is wrong with Obama?

 

[tinydancer]

This kid was caught in the middle of his father's desire to destroy the mayor.

This is a fucking no brainer.

Evidence?

Look up the history of the man.

 

[tinydancer]

needs some prolog music.

Ok.

The history of the father.

It's a given.

 

[daws101]

TD just pull off the legendary and rarely seen double dodge!
she should get some sort of prize for that!

 

[tinydancer]

What part of a set up just to snag this mayor don't any of you asshole get?

It got bigger because of that Ole right hand drawer I can make a situation out of this can't you get?

 

[Derideo_Te]

It got bigger because of that Ole right hand drawer I can make a situation out of this can't you get?

Would you like to try that again?

This time in English?

 

[tinydancer]

TD just pull off the legendary and rarely seen double dodge!
she should get some sort of prize for that!

TD just pull off the legendary and rarely seen double dodge!
she should get some sort of prize for that!

I pulled a kobayashi maru ON fucking dial up. Not bad eh