Community leaders weigh in on clock controversy

HOUSTON - 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed simply wanted to show his teacher a clock he had made.

“It was really sad that she got the wrong impression of it,” said Ahmed Mohamed.

The high schooler is drawn to electronics and technology. On Monday, he took his handmade clock to Irving MacArthur High School to show it off.

But when he did, his school ended up calling the police.

It led to Mohamed in handcuffs, arrested, accused of making a fake bomb.

“I got arrested for it later that day, but since the charges have been dropped, I do want to say that I really want to go to M.I.T., and I’m thinking about transferring schools from MacArthur to any other school,” said Mohamed.

Irving police said charges have been dropped, but the teen said he is suspended until Thursday.

In Houston, Muslim leaders say it was gut-wrenching to hear about a child receiving this kind of treatment.

“He even said that he felt like he was being treated like a criminal, and he felt like he wasn’t human anymore. And then he's taken away. That, to me, pains me. As educators we're not supposed to look down at our students,” Fatimah Rafati, a Muslim community leader.

However, community leaders say the reaction to Mohamed's arrest and the nationwide support that has since come out is encouraging.

From Obama himself to Mark Zuckerberg inviting him to Facebook headquarters, to the White House…I think this is probably one of the greatest instances in which it has been proven that a huge majority of America’s citizens stand against Muslim bigotry,” said Abdullah Elasmar, a Houston Muslim leader.

Irving police said it was an English teacher who saw the clock and reported it to the principal.

The teen says they took him out of his class and into a room where five police officers were waiting to question him.