#IStandWithAhmed social media campaign interrupted by grumpy Twitter conservatives

Right-wing grouches can't bring themselves to empathize with wrongly arrested 14-year old science whiz

By Sophia Tesfaye

Senior Politics Editor

Published September 16, 2015 6:48PM (EDT)

  (YouTube/The Dallas Morning News)
(YouTube/The Dallas Morning News)

The Internet has 14-year old Ahmed Mohamed's back.

After the fresh-faced high school freshman attempted to make a good impression on his new teachers at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, by bringing a hand-built clock to his engineering class, school officials claiming the clock resembled a bomb called law enforcement and had the young science whiz arrested. Irving police have declined to charge young Ahmed with a crime after "the follow-up investigation revealed the device apparently was a homemade experiment," but not before the young engineer was questioned and taken to a juvenile detention center:

https://twitter.com/anildash/status/644020453724585984/photo/1

Well, now the masses and celebrities alike have taken to social media to show support to the enterprising student:

President Obama invited Ahmed to the White House:

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted her hopes that Ahmed would "stay curious and keep building" despite the incident:

Others used the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed to show their support:

But not everyone was quick to support young Ahmed. Some conservatives on Twitter dismissed cries of Islamaphobia as overblown:

Some tweets attempted to explain conservatives' outrage with the support Ahmed's received:

 

Obama Tweets Support for Clock-Making Student


By Sophia Tesfaye

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's senior editor for news and politics, and resides in Washington, D.C. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.

MORE FROM Sophia Tesfaye


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