“Clock boy” Ahmed Mohamed made it to Mecca Friday for umrah, the Arabic word for pilgrimage, the portion of his Middle Eastern tour sponsored by the Saudi government. The trip also included the 14-year-old’s parents and other relatives, including one uncle who pushed the Islamophobia narrative.
The uncle, identified by Arab News as Moussa Al-Hassan, asserted: “The ordinary American citizen lives in a state of fear of Arabs because of the American media’s portrayal of him as an extremist terrorist.”
At King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah on Friday morning, Ahmed thanked the Saudi government for its invitation “to visit the Kingdom to perform Umrah and meet his relatives,” according to Ummid, an Indian news organization. Ahmed recycled a comment made to American news outlets, telling Middle Eastern reporters: “It was really sad that she took the wrong impression of it and I got arrested.” He meant his English teacher who became alarmed when the plugged in unconventional looking homemade clock experiment started to beep in her class.
Ummid editorialized: “Local police insisted that Mohammed’s ethnicity had nothing to do with the decision to arrest him on suspicion of bringing a hoax bomb to school.” Breitbart Texas reported the arrest resulted out of federal and state safe school acts plus district Student Code of Conduct zero tolerance policies, not racism or Islamophobia.
Mohamed is the 14-year-old Sudanese immigrant who brought a homemade suitcase clock into a suburban Dallas high school. The unassigned project, a 120 volt mass of circuitry and wires crafted from a commercially dissembled clock, resembled a “hoax bomb,” prompting the teen’s arrest. Although no charges were filed, MacArthur High School suspended him for three days after which the family withdrew from the Irving Independent School District.
Earlier this month, Ahmed visited Qatar, invited by the Qatar Foundation (QF) for Education, Science and Community Development, founded by Al Jazeera creator Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who is closely associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and opposes what he calls the “Judaization of Jerusalem” in referencing the Jewish Holy City and Israeli capitol. In late 2012, the New York Times reported Al Thani pledged $400 million to fund Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Last week, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, family patriarch, shared 9/11 truther posts on his Facebook wall.
The clockmeister toured Al Thani’s namesake Hamad bin Khalifa University, followed by satellite campuses for Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) and Carnegie Mellon, according to a QF press release.
This week, the teen and his family are expected to return stateside, meeting with President Obama and attending the White House astronomy night. Despite all the hype Ahmed put out over social media about bringing the clock-in-a-box to the White House, Irving police spokesman James McLellan confirmed for Breitbart Texas that “to the best of my knowledge,” the family has not yet retrieved the clock.
Since the week of Sept. 14, officers attempted to reach the Mohameds directly and through Anthony Cody, a local activist and family friend, who presented himself to law enforcement as a family representative, according to McLellan. On Sept. 23, Irving PD spoke to news media, debunking the family’s claims that the police will not release the timepiece. McLellan again emphasized to Breitbart Texas that Ahmed’s project is “not being withheld.”
Ahmed also filmed a promotional video to come meet “the clockmaker” at the Islamophobia touting Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Oct. 17 “Champions for Justice” 21st Anniversary banquet held in Arlington, VA.
Follow Merrill Hope on Twitter @OutOfTheBoxMom.
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