Ahmed Mohamed, the fourteen-year-old Sudanese-American high school freshman who became a global Muslim celebrity after he was arrested but not charged last month for bringing an alleged hoax bomb to school that turned out to be a clock reassembled to look like a bomb, finally picked up his device from Irving police on Friday, more than one month after the police said it was free to be taken home.
Mohamed posted to Twitter about picking up the ‘clock’.
https://twitter.com/IStandWithAhmed/status/657666414552023040
Avi Selk with the Dallas Morning News posted photographs to Twitter of the reunion, including one of the evidence bag.
Or it's a clock. @IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/nvKMCQV6fU
— Avi Selk (@aviselk) October 23, 2015
Clock and @IStandWithAhmed, reunited: https://t.co/usn10QP98z pic.twitter.com/JktF2GwoLC
— Avi Selk (@aviselk) October 23, 2015
Mohamed’s father is taking the family to Qatar to live, apparently within the week after Ahmed was granted a generous education scholarship. A family member told the Morning News the family may hold a press conference this weekend before heading to Qatar.
Mohamed’s uncle Aldean complained the incident has ‘destroyed’ the family.
““This has destroyed the whole family, you know,” he said. “We are here for 30 years. We love Irving and want to be in Irving but this is their choice” to leave.
Ahmed and his immediate family will move to Qatar largely because a foundation there has offered to pay for the boy’s education through college. But another reason, the family said, is the attacks they have faced since Ahmed became a celebrity—the conspiracy theories, erroneous rumors and casual, unevidenced accusations of terrorist links.
“All the crazy things,” Aldean said. “There is a fear of all those comments.”
“This is a 14-year-old kid.”
Ahmed Mohamed complained this week to Yahoo News that America is a ‘hard’ place for a Muslim to grow up in.
…”how hard it is growing up in America. It was pretty hard living in America and going to school being Muslim.”
Mohamed visited the White House this week and met President Barack Obama who had invited him to bring his ‘cool clock’ to the White House after being informed of Mohammed’s arrest.
Mohamed did not pick up the ‘clock’ from police before the visit–saving himself and Obama the embarrassment of having to have the ‘clock’ examined by the Secret Service.
IT WAS AMAZING, AND A HONOR MEETING #PRESIDENT #OBAMA!!! #YOY #THEWHITEHOUSE pic.twitter.com/OIuXjFVLZe
— Ahmed Mohamed (@IStandWithAhmed) October 20, 2015
Days before he visited the White House, Mohamed was named American Muslim of the Year by the Islamist group CAIR. In the weeks after the September 14 incident at school he toured the Muslim-ruled nations of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Sudan where he was a celebrated visitor.
