September 19, 2015
By Augustine Anthony
From a life of obscurity, teenaged student Ahmed Mohamed will step into White House on October 19 as a guest personally invited by President Obama.
Even before that the 14-year-old may have visited the headquarters of Facebook in California at the invitation of its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who thinks the future belongs to talent like him.
The honor doesn’t end here. According to media reports, Ahmed now has offers of internships from Reddit and Twitter and Google will reserve a spot for him at their weekend science fair.
But this lightening rise to fame for the 9th Grade Muslim boy, whose father migrated to the United State from Sudan, has come at a cost – two agonizing hours spent in police custody in Texas, where his teacher suspected the digital clock the student had made and brought to school was a bomb.
Despite the sudden rise to fame, feelings that he was handcuffed and interrogated just because of suspicions and his being follower of a different faith or race, may last for a long time.
Yet, in the long run, Ahmed may be able to relegate these thoughts and emerge as a winner. That might emerge from his association with the brighter side of the American society. While instances of injustice, post-9/11 Islamophobia and stereotype characterizations do take place in the West, they cannot go unnoticed in America. The power of the media and Obama’s awareness of his obligations has led to an encouraging conciliation gesture.
It doesn’t happen often and it certainly doesn’t happen everywhere. Some European countries’ callous response to the plight of Syrian refugees is a case in point.
But does recognition of Mohammad’s talent exonerate the society of the episode witnessed in Irving early this week? In any case, an urgent sense of introspection is called for.
“I felt like I was a criminal,” Ahmed said in a reported interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Wednesday.
He was questioned in the absence of his parents. The obvious question being asked is would the police be following the same procedure, if Ahmed were a white? Irving police chief Larry Boyd certainly believes so.
In the words of Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, the incident is a “teachable moment.” While mainstream U.S. leaders and the businesses have acted to correct the wrong done to Ahmed, this sense of togetherness and understanding needs to resonate at grassroots.
Ahmed should walk in to the While House on Oct. 19 as a proud American to participate in an astronomy night, which may be the beginning of an illustrious future for the young kid.
All Americans must make sure that that for a keen young inventor like Ahmed, sky is the limit.
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