America first came to know Ahmed Mohamed when he was detained by police in mid-September.
His crime? He took apart a clock and put it into a handled case. He then took it to school. At school, he showed it off to teachers as his invention, but because it looked like a bomb the police were called.
Following the incident, Ahmed was suspended from school for three days, but then his father withdrew him and his siblings from school.
Ahmed gained the national spotlight with sympathizers and was even invited to the White House.
Then in October, he accepted a scholarship to Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) and his family moved to Qatar. He said of the move:
“Qatar was a cool place to visit. I loved the city of Doha because it’s so modern. I saw so many amazing schools there, many of them campuses of famous American universities. The teachers were great. I think I will learn a lot and have fun, too.”
Now the ‘Clock Boy,’ as he has come to be known, has again garnered headlines following his Facetime interview with CBS 11.
During the interview, he made some comments that grabbed attention:
- On how he is a ‘regular person’ in Qatar: “It’s like how you expect it when you move to a new country and you meet new people.”
- On the family wanting to return to Texas but not doing so yet: “I was scared because I’ve heard what happened recently with, like, people with guns going to my local mosque. It’s scary because people with guns and, I mean, they have the right to do that but it’s scary because I’m afraid, you know.”
The protest Ahmed referred to was peaceful, though the family has cited fear and death threats as reasons for the move to Qatar and staying there for now.
However, he also talked about going home to Texas, with publications such as Breitbart calling him “homesick”:
“I want to go back to a place where everyone knows me.”
Ahmed again made headlines when he filed a $15 million lawsuit against the City of Irving and Irving Independent School District because of ‘damages suffered’ following the ‘homemade clock taken to school’ incident.
