The Clock Boy: The Dangers of Islamophobia (Literature Review)

Image from: http://blogs.denverpost.com/opinion-cartoons/files/2015/09/ahmed-mohamed-clock-cartoon-luckovich.jpg

Executive Summary

This report provided an analysis and evaluation of the Clock Boy story that had caused a media pandemonium and a public outcry of religious profiling and islamophobia. The methods of analysis included inspection of the various perspectives and viewpoints of the incident, the reasonableness of their arguments, the speakers’ motivations and affiliations, as well as the evaluation of the attitudes and the actions of the law enforcement and the public. The report scrutinized the statements of the opposing sides, their claims and their rationale for their actions. It assessed the testimony of another MacArthur student who defended the school against the discrimination claims. It examined other similar incidents of hate crimes against the Muslim populace that occurred recently. It also analyzed the opinion of an islamophobia expert and the survey conducted by the Washington Post pertaining to this issue.

Findings, Recommendation and Conclusion

The result of the research found that MacArthur High School and Irving authorities overstepped their ethical boundaries under the guise of national security. The report concluded that Ahmed Mohamed, the teenage Muslim high school student who was arrested for a bomb hoax was a victim of religious profiling. Hence, the report recommended that MacArthur High School and Irving Police issue an official apology to Ahmed Mohamed for the humiliation that they had caused. In addition, the report also proposed that punitive or compensatory damages be awarded to Ahmed Mohamed for the anguish and trauma that he suffered at the hands of the overzealous authorities.

Limitations of the Report

The report also acknowledged the fact that the analysis conducted had limitations: the lack of the official statements from MacArthur High School and the Irving Police due to privacy limitations; the ambiguity and the contradiction between the Texas bylaws and the United States Constitution; and the complexity of the issue that required the verdict of an impartial US Court.

Introduction

The most deadly outcome of the September 11 attack on the Twin Towers was not the death of seven thousand Americans but the escalation of the irrational fear against Islam to an alarming level. Islam has now become synonymous to terrorism which is, etymologically, an act to cause terror. Conversely, the terrorists have accomplished their goal of terrorizing, not because they bombed cities and killed countless civilians, but because they inflicted irrational fear and hatred towards Islam (Brown, 2003, p. 82). Islamophobia was astoundingly demonstrated in the incident surrounding Ahmed Mohamed, a Muslim teenage student of MacArthur High School, who was accused of purposely causing a bomb hoax.

This report will extensively and comprehensively present various viewpoints related to the Clock Boy – his sympathizers and his critics, as well as Irving’s supporters. The report will use a wide variety of sources: news articles and opinion articles from CNN News, New York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Breitbart, The Daily Beast, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Investor's Business Daily, Gazette Review, Al Jazeera, Okay Africa, Fox 13, Dearborn Patch, Fox News and Colorlines; blogs entries from Artvoice, Inforwars, MIT, Luther College; and videos from YouTube and the TV show Real Time with Bill Maher. Other materials and resources regarding the impacts and implications of racism and religious profiling will also be studied. The report will analyze the arguments, evidences and techniques of the authors, as well as the emotional and logical fallacies they employed. Finally, the report will provide a conclusion and recommendations pertaining to the topic.

Background

What happens when a science enthusiast teenage boy goes to school with a science experiment intended to impress his teachers? Naturally, he would gather accolades and encouragement, if not for his invention, for his zeal and enthusiasm for learning. But not when he is a Muslim.

On September 14, 2015, one fateful Monday morning, Ahmed Mohamed went to MacArthur High School, with his clock pencil box invention that he made the previous night. What followed was a series of harassment and stigmatization of the 14-year-old in which he was interrogated by the local law enforcement, handcuffed and detained like a criminal, and taken to a juvenile detention facility where he stayed in custody for 3 days. He was arrested on the grounds of purposely trying to cause a bomb scare. The police denied the teen’s repeated requests to speak to his parents, and two days later, amid a public furor, the charges were dropped (Briquelet, 2015, para. 5). Ahmed’s arrest gained him an invitation to the White House, scholarship at Qatar Foundation for Education, $15, 000 crowdsourcing fund, event offers from Google, MIT and Twitter, a scholarship to Space Camp (Briquelet, 2015). Finally, it culminated in Ahmed Mohamed being named one of Time Magazine's “30 Most Influential Teens of 2015” (Time Staff, 2015). The Mohamed family moved to Qatar after the incident, and demanded $15 million in compensation and written apologies from the Irving police and the school (Stanton, 2016, paras. 9-10).

This incident raised few issues that needed to be addressed. Did the authorities act reasonably as necessitated by a security concern or did they subject Ahmed to racial and religious profiling? Was Ahmed truly a victim of islamophobia or was he a collaborator to a ploy to get the media’s attention?

Viewpoints: Pro Ahmed, Anti Ahmed and Pro Irving

The Clock Boy’s story went viral and prompted differing viewpoints from the media, social media and the public. These viewpoints were Pro Ahmed, Anti Ahmed and Pro Irving.

Viewpoint: Pro Ahmed

Ahmed Mohamed’s sympathizers and supporters viewpoint was based on the interpretation of the incident as an islamophobia phenomenon. They perceived Ahmed as a cerebral kid who has a knack for inventing things, and as a victim of religious profiling by the school and the authorities.

Viewpoint: Anti Ahmed

Ahmed’s critics’ viewpoint was based on their interpretation of the event as a publicity stunt perpetrated by Ahmed in connivance with his ignominious father and his family. Moreover, they objected to the media and public attention that Ahmed enjoyed for they believed that Ahmed did not invent the device, thus the furor was undeserved. This viewpoint affected and reinforced the opinions of the other critics and persuaded other people to agree to the Anti Ahmed stance.

Viewpoint: Pro Irving

MacArthur High School and Irving Police gathered some supporters in this incident. The Pro Irving’s viewpoint was based on the interpretation of the event as a security necessity. They believed that the authorities were not guilty of religious discrimination. The Pro Irving supporters justified their opinions based on the Texas bylaw and the school’s Student Code of Conduct.

The Impact of the Various Viewpoints

The various viewpoints influenced each other either positively or negatively. For instance, the Anti Ahmed’s viewpoint and the allegation of a conspiracy reinforced the Pro Irving’s belief that the authorities’ course of actions was reasonable under a potential bomb hoax. The Pro Irving’s viewpoint resulted in Anti Ahmed individuals holding Ahmed accountable for the incident. This was a false cause or a false premise fallacy. The Anti Ahmed and the Pro Irving’s viewpoints added fuel to the fire for the Pro Ahmed individuals. Instead of hearing reasonable arguments, they heard victim blaming, picking on a kid, character assassinations, and distorted ways of thinking.

Arguments, Evidences and Techniques

Ahmed Mohamed’s predicament resulted in extensive media coverage on the TV news, radio news, newspapers, editorials, and so forth. Ahmed Mohamed did not only accumulate thousands of sympathizers and supporters, but haters and bashers as well. His story was circulated and repeated so many times that it was on the verge of becoming an urban legend. It was such an over dramatization of a seemingly innocuous event that it demonstrated our society’s irrational fear of Islam. There had been alarmingly numerous incidents where Muslim people were discriminated against, attacked, harmed and even murdered for their religion. Being cautious and prioritizing public safety is a good thing, but where do we draw the line? Where does national security end and religious persecution begin?

Arguments, Evidences and Techniques: Pro Ahmed

Generally, Ahmed’s supporters used the deductive reasoning model in presenting their arguments: many are prejudiced against Muslims; Ahmed is a Muslim; therefore Ahmed had been persecuted because of his religion.[FM4] This reasoning served as a framework for the Pro Ahmed individuals in which they referred back to the general discrimination against the Islamic people. Furthermore, this reasoning was repeatedly confirmed every time they heard an Anti Ahmed argument.

Pro Ahmed in Social Media: Obama and Zuckerberg

A vociferous chorus of disapproval of Ahmed Mohamed’s arrest had reverberated on the social media as the hash tag #IStandWithAhmed started trending worldwide on Twitter with more than a million tweets. Ahmed’s supporters were outraged with what they perceived as racial or religious profiling. The school's Facebook page was roiling with sharp criticism of the way the teen was treated, and the hashtag #engineersforahmed was gaining popularity (Fantz et al, 2015, para. 2). Pres. Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and thousands of others were showing support for Ahmed. President Obama described Ahmed’s clock as ‘cool,’ and invited the boy to the White House. Mark Zuckerberg posted his support on Facebook for Ahmed stating that the future belongs to people like Ahmed who have the skill and ambition to build something cool (Fantz et al, 2015, para. 7). The MIT community lent their support by placing a clock in the lobby accompanied by a banner reading #ISTANDWITHAHMED, the ubiquitous hashtag that had accompanied Mohamed’s story (London, 2015, para. 3). Ahmed’s supporters on social media did not only express support for him, but attacked his critics as well.

Pres. Obama is known for being sympathetic towards the discriminated Muslim people. During his official visit to a US mosque, he condemned both extremism and islamophobia. He told the audience, “You’re not [a] Muslim or [an] American. You’re [a] Muslim and American” (Obama, cited in Rao, 2016). Being an African-American, Pres. Obama has sympathy for the visible minorities who are usually the victims of racism. Mark Zuckerberg is a well-known humanitarian and philanthropist. Pres. Obama and Mark Zuckerberg were acting as social justice heroes whose motives were either altruistic or self-serving – only they knew. Both Pres. Obama and Zuckerberg’s comments qualified as argumentum pro hominem which is an appeal to good characters instead of the ideas’ merit.

Pro Ahmed in Media: Al Jazeera and Washington Post

Ahmed’s sympathizers warned that this was not a case of individual racism or institutional negligence, but a manifestation of the spread of anti-Muslim bigotry into the most formative aspect of the society, its schools. Beydoun defined ‘islamophobia’ as an American psychosis that sways popular views and policies, and a form of racism that is penetrating American schools, and endangering Muslim American youth in the very spaces where their ingenuity and intellect should be nurtured, not punished. He pointed out that American society has been criminalizing Muslim youth and teaching inferiority (2015, para. 4).

Muslims are inevitably linked to terrorism, so even while they are engaged in innocuous activities, they still spur suspicion of a security threat. Conversely, Muslim youth are not spared from this widespread discrimination, as demonstrated in Ahmed Mohamed’s case. Beydoun argued that “although an excellent student, with no record of insubordination, Mohamed’s otherwise pristine record was instantly extinguished by the threat his Muslim background posed” (2015, para. 6). Beydoun, the Al Jazeera writer, is of Arabic ancestry and is inclined to sympathize with a fellow Muslim. His article was also biased and filled with fallacies such as argumentum pro hominem and emotional appeals.

The Washington Post had consistently expressed support for Ahmed in their articles. Moreover, they also conducted an experiment regarding how Americans perceived the Muslims which revealed a horrifying result: “Americans see Muslims as apes or worse” (Kteily & Bruneau, 2015, para. 1). In this study, photos of the ‘ascent of man’ were shown to 1,065 American participants who were asked to rate, on a 0-100 scale, how evolved they believed various groups to be. The results showed that the Muslims were the most readily dehumanized group. Kteily and Bruneau argued that this was probably why Ahmed was arrested: they might not have seen him as fully human (2015, para. 3).

The Washington Post’s survey, though persuasive, was not free from errors. The survey possessed objective evidence and testability; however, it did not possess the proper measurement. The 1,065 participants were not a fair representation of the entire American population. In their article “Americans see Muslims as less than human,” they employed media biases: an inflammatory headline by using the words less than human; and manipulative imagery by painting an image of an ape. These are some of the tactics of the media (Lewis, 2007, p. 273). However, Washington Post may have a very valid point in their argument. Dehumanization is the psychological process of demonizing the enemy, making them seem less than human and hence not worthy of humane treatment. This can lead to increased violence, human rights violations, war crimes, and genocide (Maiese, 2003, para. 1). To dehumanize others is to exclude them from our circle of moral and social obligations; killing a dehumanized person becomes akin to crushing an insect. Islamophobia includes dehumanization of the Muslim people.

Pro Ahmed in Academia: Todd Green

Todd Green, a religion professor at Luther College, voiced out his disapproval of Ahmed’s arrest. He opined that Ahmed’s arrest wasn’t about protecting other children or school safety: it was about intense bigotry and hostility toward Muslim people and fear running amok. He eloquently reasoned that our fear has destroyed our rational thinking, and every brown person or Muslim we see is a suspected terrorist. He argued that was Ahmed’s real crime was being a Muslim. He also pointed out the reactions of several politicians whose comments portrayed intense hatred for Islamic people. Green opined that courage is needed in the face of islamophobia, and this the Irving authorities did not have (Green, 2015, paras. 3-8).

Todd Green is a professor of European and American religious history at Luther College, Huffington Post contributor, and an author of two books. In his book, The Fear of Islam: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West, he surveyed anti-Muslim bigotry and hostility in the United States and Europe. Although his arguments were logically and ethically sound, he committed a bifurcation fallacy which is polarizing the discussion into two (Lewis, 2007, p. 341). His professional background lent him the credibility as a subject-matter expert of islamophobia in the western society. Ironically, his background could also be interpreted as having ulterior motives and prejudices regarding the topic. Lewis explains that an expert’s opinion may be valid, but the public must be aware of other motivations (2007, pp. 274-275).

Arguments, Evidences and Techniques: Anti Ahmed

Ahmed’s critics employed the inductive reasoning model in their arguments. They used minor and flawed premises to concoct equally flawed conclusions: Ahmed’s clock was a hoax, therefore he must be a hoax boy; Ahmed’s father had an ulterior motive, therefore Ahmed’s arrest must have been premeditated; and so forth. Their arguments were full of conspiracy theories about the incident. Ironically, both the Anti Ahmed and Pro Irving were adversely persuasive in three aspects: that Ahmed was indeed discriminated against; that the police violated his human rights; and that islamophobia is pervasive.

Anti Ahmed in the Tech World: DiPasquale and Talbot

Some engineers commented that there was something ‘fishy’ about Ahmed’s invention and the Internet had been lit aflame by claims of conspiracy (Briquelet, 2015, para. 2). Ahmed Mohamed’s clock had been called fraud by the electronic experts. Anthony DiPasquale of Artvoice.com exposed the circuitry of Ahmed’s clock and said that he didn’t build a clock. He quipped on Ahmed’s comment on the pencil box not ‘looking suspicious.’ He questioned why looking suspicious would cross Ahmed’s mind if it was indeed an innocent hobby project (Briquelet, 2015, para. 10). DiPasquale surmised that the whole incident was either a hoax bomb or a silly prank gone awry. He opined that there wasn’t any racial or religious bias on the teachers and the police’s sides (Briquelet, 2015, para. 12). In his article, DiPasquale started by narrating his childhood as an electronic enthusiast just like Ahmed. He, then, stated an initial sympathy for Ahmed’s predicament, which ended when he found out that Ahmed did not invent the clock. Furthermore, he questioned what other aspects of Ahmed’s story were either fabricated or exaggerated. He opined that the society has knee-jerk responses without knowing the facts. He expressed his support to the authorities and cited the many incidents of violence in the U.S. schools (DiPasquale, 2015).

Thomas Talbot, an electronics author and prominent medical virtual reality scientist narrated a similar takedown that Ahmed did not invent a clock. In his video, he said that it was done for provocative reasons, and intended to create an alarmed reaction (Talbot, 2015). DiPasquale and Talbot’s analyses of Ahmed’s clock reinforced the opinions of Ahmed’s critics, and instigated the conspiracy theories.

DiPasquale, Talbot and other electronic experts committed the fallacies of false premise and false cause. The issue was not the clock. It was the racial prejudice. Whether Ahmed invented or deconstructed a clock was beside the point. Irving authorities violated Ahmed’s human rights.

Anti Ahmed in Social Media: Richard Dawkins

Another famous critic of Ahmed was the British scientist and atheist Richard Dawkins who argued that calling Ahmed the ‘Clock Boy’ was a misnomer since he never made a clock. He opined that ‘Hoax Boy’ was more appropriate since Ahmed “hoaxed his way into the White House, now wants $15M in addition!” (Dawkins, cited in Hume, 2015, para. 6). He tweeted that Ahmed might have an ulterior motive for his action and that he planned this to get sympathy. Ahmed’s supporters back lashed and chided Dawkins for picking up on a kid, upon which Dawkins retaliated by comparing Ahmed to an ISIS child executioner. This comment provoked an even greater backlash (Hume, 2015, paras. 6-9).

Richard Dawkins’ argument was an example of poisoning the well. By discrediting the victim, he aimed to take away the sympathy bestowed upon him. Dawkins painted Ahmed Mohamed as a shrewd schemer whose clock was an elaborate scam to exploit the public’s sympathy. When Dawkins compared Ahmed to an ISIS child executioner, he committed an analogical fallacy which is comparing two objects and allowing their similarity to pass as equality (Lewis, 2007, p. 338). Furthermore, this comparison was an excellent example of manipulative imagery that was intended to influence the audience (Lewis, 2007, p. 273). His comment that Ahmed was a ‘Hoax Boy’ since he hoaxed his way into the White House was a false premise for it began with a doubtful statement that ended in an equally doubtful result. From Dawkins’ background, being a Caucasian American and a vocal atheist, it can be gathered that he would be unsympathetic to the plight of the religious or Arabic people. Although he is a highly-esteemed scientist, he did not have any expertise regarding the topic, and was merely voicing out his clouded opinions. Evidently, even the brightest minds are not spared from this debilitating islamophobia disease.

Anti Ahmed in Television: Bill Maher and Mark Cuban

Another criticism was from a well-known public figure Bill Maher who adamantly believed that Ahmed’s situation was not a religious profiling but a necessary security measure. On the September 18, 2015 segment of Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill Maher and panelists Jorge Ramos, Chris Matthews, Mark Cuban and former Gov. George Pataki discussed Ahmed’s arrest. When liberal Ron Reagan, Jr. attempted to claim that the device did not resemble a bomb, Maher quickly countered his argument by saying “try taking that through airport security” (2015). The American-Mexican journalist and author Jorge Ramos futilely tried to defend Ahmed but was unsuccessful. Billionaire Mark Cuban said that Ahmed showed the clock to every teacher until he finally got the desired response. Maher said Ahmed’s clock looked like a bomb, and that his teacher did not do anything wrong because most terrorists are Muslims, and that Ahmed looked like one. Maher added: “Over the last 30 years, if so many young Muslim men … He’s young, 14, but that’s not like it’s never happened before, hasn’t blown a lot of shit up around the world” (2015).

Maher’s commentaries were blatantly discriminatory and racist, not only to Ahmed, but to all Muslims in general. He committed genetic fallacy and hasty generalizations with his comments about young Muslim men bombing cities. He also committed a logical fallacy when he argued that Ahmed’s clock looked like a bomb and that could be proven by trying to bring it to an airport. Logical fallacy is formally sound, yet leads to incorrect deductions (Lewis, 2007, p. 338). Ahmed’s clock was brought to the school, where children experiment and invent, and not to the airport. Maher is notorious for his sarcastic attitude, sociopolitical commentaries about religion, political correctness, and the mass media. Being a self-identified atheist, Maher views all religion as highly destructive. Given his background, his commentaries, though obscene, were quite expected. On the other hand, Mark Cuban committed a straw person argument when he implied that Ahmed was deliberately trying to be arrested. Cuban is very wealthy and is infamous for his emotional outbursts and for being opinionated. He is probably an elitist who has no compassion for individuals whom he thought are opportunists.

Anti Ahmed in Media: Breitbart, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Etc.

Some critics insinuated that the whole event was a big set-up for personal and political gain. They cited Ahmed’s suspicious behaviour and his father’s agenda as obvious indicators of an orchestrated publicity stunt. They criticized Pres. Barack Obama’s support for Ahmed as premature and inappropriate (Watson, 2015; Editorials Investors, 2015).

Ahmed’s critics used Ahmed’s father’s questionable affiliations and motives to tear down Ahmed’s credibility. Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, a Sudanese immigrant who came to US in the 1980s, ran twice for Sudanese presidential candidacy, and played as the defense in Rev. Terry Jones’ incendiary Quran mock trial which ended up in the book being set on fire (Klein, 2015, para. 7). This was an example of argumentum ad hominem. By depicting Mr. Mohamed in a bad light, the critics tried to persuade us to reject the opponent’s statements because they came from a dubious source. This argument was logically incorrect: a son’s character should not be tarnished by his father’s reputation; the insinuation that a 14-year old teen was capable of planning such a scheme was simply far-fetched. This also qualified as a character assassination which is an attempt to ruin one's reputation by misleading half-truths, hyperboles, or distortion of the facts to depict an undesirable image of the target.

In its editorial, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette opined that what little sympathy Americans had for the Clock Boy is now gone due to his family’s “shameless money grab,” and “that the Mohamed family’s departure and subsequent 15-million dollars demands make them look like opportunists, or worse” (Editorial Board, 2015, paras. 1-4). Moreover, they dismissed Ahmed’s experience as short-lived, whereas the benefits he reaped were paramount. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette trivialized Ahmed’s ordeal, and their reasoning had fallacies such as false premise, argumentum ad hominem and straw person argument. They committed ergo propter hoc or false cause because the Mohamed family’s relocation was due to the emotional turmoil and embarrassment that the incident caused, not because they were opportunists. Uprooting an entire family is not an easy undertaking. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette committed media biases: selective representation, biased headlines, innuendo and lies (Lewis, 2007, pp. 273-274).

Anti Ahmed in Academia: William Kilpatrick

One of the most persuasive critics of Ahmed was William Kilpatrick, a professor at Boston College and an author of several books about cultural and religious issues. In his article “Clock and Bull Story,” Kilpatrick narrated the same arguments about Ahmed’s clock, his intention and his father’s bad reputation. Furthermore, he added more controversies: Ahmed’s older sister, Eyman, was once suspended from her school for threatening to blow it up; Ahmed’s uncle’s company is called Twin Towers Transportation (2015, para. 5). Controversially, he added that Mr. Mohamed allegedly said, “Muslims must exploit every opportunity to reveal the truth of Islam” (cited in Kilpatrick, 2015, para. 6). Most interestingly, he argued that this might be a classic case of ‘stealth jihad,’ similar to the flying imams incident. In this incident, six imams were praying loudly in Arabic on a flight to Phoenix and got offloaded from the plane. The imams sued the airline, the police, and the passengers who reported them.

Kilpatrick raised the possible “chilling effect” on citizens’ willingness to report suspicious behaviours that these incidents may bring (2015, paras. 7-8). Effectively, he mentioned Michael Tuohey, the U.S. Airways ticket agent who checked in the terrorists of 9/11, Mohammed Atta and Abdul Azziz-Alomari. Tuohey said, “I got an instant chill when I looked at [Atta]. I [have] got this grip in my stomach and then, of course, I gave myself a political correct slap: These are just a couple of Arab businessmen” (cited in Kilpatrick, 2015, para. 12). Kilpatrick’s argument was similar to Maher’s argument about Americans dismissing their suspicions for just their ‘white privilege’ talking (2015). This self-censorship could be deadly. Kilpatrick committed many fallacies, but the most deadly one was the argumentum ad baculum,or the appeal to fear: by reminding the readers of the 9/11, he sowed seeds of doubts, anxiety and uncertainty on the Pro Ahmed stance.

Arguments, Evidences and Techniques: Pro Irving

The Pro Irving individuals expressed support for the school and the police and justified their course of actions as preventative security measure. The Irving supporters employed the deductive reasoning model: all students’ misconducts are subject to the school’s disciplinary protocol; Ahmed was a misbehaving student, thus Ahmed was justly disciplined.

Pro Irving in the Local Government: Mayor Van Duyn

Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne defended the school district and police, and reasoned that they were all following procedures by looking into what they saw as a potential threat (Fantz & Stapleton, 2015, para. 3). Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said authorities were able to determine quickly that it wasn’t a bomb, but they investigated Ahmed to determine whether he brought the device to school with the intention of creating alarm. In Texas, it is against the law to use or possess a fake bomb with the intent to make someone believe that it is an explosive (Fantz & Stapleton, 2015, para. 4). Irving Mayor justified the police’s action and described Ahmed Mohamed’s reaction as ‘non-responsive and passive aggressive’ (Stanton, 2016, para. 8). This was an example of a straw person argument. By labeling Ahmed as such, she justified the injustice, harassment and stigmatization done to him, and she hid under the pretense of national security. She failed to put into account that Ahmed is just a 14-year old boy, who was handcuffed and treated like a criminal. His defiance and non-responsiveness to the police was quite understandable and expected in the given circumstances, especially when he was denied the right to contact his parents. Mayor Van Duyne is known for her anti-Islamic stance, and had previously made similar comments regarding Muslims (Stanton, 2016, para. 12).

Pro Irving in the Islamic Community: Amena Jamali

Amena Jamali, a Muslim and the 2015 Valedictorian at MacArthur High School, claimed that the school bent over and backwards to accommodate her religious requests, even allowing her a month off to perform her Hajj (Fox News Insider, 2015). Amena Jamali’s testimony might save the school from a costly lawsuit. Her statement was based on her personal experience, hence reliable. Being a devout Muslim, she presented a very convincing argument against Ahmed’s discrimination claim. However, her experience did not capture the whole picture, as the school’s authorities could still suffer from irrational fear of radical Muslims who are composed of the male population. Thus, Amena Jamali could have been spared from religious persecutions because of her gender. This is an excellent example of argumentum pro hominem which is the appeal to good character. Jamali’s scholastic background gave her the credibility; however a good reputation does not guarantee that a belief is true (Lewis, 2007, p. 339).

Pro Irving in Media: Breitbart

In her article “Texas Boy Arrested Because of Zero Tolerance Policies not Islamophobia,” Hope explained that the rigid school policy dictated the handling of Ahmed’s incidents with school officials. She narrated several other cases in which other non-Muslim boys were subjected to severe interrogations and punishments for something as petty as stealing a kiss or minor consumption of beer. She said that the vast majority affected by the zero tolerance policies are boys. Hence, the war against boys cuts across race, religion, and socio-economic status (2015).

Hope’s argument that Ahmed’s arrest was due to zero-tolerance policy was full of holes. It showed a normalizing fallacy wherein the incident is being ‘normalized’ as an everyday occurrence, and that Ahmed, his family and his supporters should not sweat out the small things. This is logically fallacious: those other boys were not accused of a bomb scare, Ahmed was. There is a big difference between stealing a kiss, mild intoxication and bomb hoax accusations. This is also a false cause fallacy or ergo propter hoc, which is an assumption that one thing caused another (Lewis, 2007, p. 342). It can be observed that Hope’s employer Breitbart Texas, a local Irving newspaper, had been following Ahmed’s story very closely. Their stance is evidently Anti Ahmed, and their articles were full of innuendoes, character assassinations, and misleading insinuations and/or observations. With their affiliation with Irving’s authorities, they could be quite prejudiced and biased. Alexander Pope was right: “all seems infected that the infected spy, as all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.”

Analysis of Arguments and Evidences

The right to an attorney is an absolute right under the U.S. Constitution, and with it comes the right not to be interrogated without the presence of a lawyer, and not to be treated as guilty before being convicted (Getting Arrested, n.d.). During the interrogation, Ahmed repeatedly asked to call his parents in which he was repeatedly denied. Ahmed recalled that the officers said: “Yup. That’s who I thought it was!” and “So you tried to make a bomb?” (Fantz et al, 2015, para. 5). In the eyes of the law; a suspect is innocent until proven guilty. Moreover, they handcuffed, fingerprinted, photographed, and detained Ahmed Mohamed for three days despite their knowledge that the device was not a bomb. This was a travesty of justice.

According to Hope, Ahmed’s arrest was dictated by the school’s Student Code of Conduct manual written in accordance to Texas’ 1995 Safe School Acts (2015, para. 3). The arrest was not the issue; it was their denial of Ahmed’s right to an attorney. Moreover, the Constitution is the supreme law of a country. The concept of constitutional supremacy dictates that no bylaws, legislations and regulations can violate a nation’s constitution. It provides power to check on a government body. Therefore, if the bylaw or the student manual were indeed meticulously followed by the authorities, it only meant that they are unconstitutional. No one is above the law, not even the authorities. Moreover, if the authorities would feign ignorance of the Constitutional rights, ignorance of the law excuses no one.

Bill Maher’s comment about Ahmad’s clock rang true: at first glance and through an amateur’s eyes, the clock could easily be mistaken for an explosive. However, both Ahmed’s English teacher and the police admitted that they knew immediately that it was not a bomb, yet they still did what they did. This could be an indication of an abuse of power. They did it because they could. The conspiracy theory that the Anti Ahmed concocted was absurd and illogical: a teenager would break under the stress of police scrutiny; and a manipulation of such a monumental scale would require a highly-skilled manipulator. Moreover, the allegation that Ahmed’s father designed this scheme was implausible: a parent is highly unlikely to put his or her child in harm’s way.

Amena Jamali’s testimony, though, advantageous to MacArthur High School, could also be a sign of inequality of the treatment between Muslim girls and boys. The school may be accommodating to the Muslim girls for they are unlikely to be perceived as terrorists, yet still be discriminatory to the Muslim boys. Amena Jamali and Ahmed Mohamed’s contradictory experiences showed a disparity in the school’s treatment with their students. Educational institutions should foster fairness and equality.

Kilpatrick was very eloquent and convincing. He used the most effective weapon of all: fear. He raised a very valid point pertaining to the chilling effect, thus the reporting of suspicious behaviours and activities should never be punished: it is how the investigations are handled. The authorities have to ensure that as they carry out their duties, they must not violate the basic human rights of the individuals. There is a fine line between security measures and racial and religious discrimination.

Evaluation of Similar Incidents

Ahmed Mohamed’s incident was similar to what happened to Ms. Tahera Ahmad who was subjected to discrimination, suspicion and hateful language during her flight with United Airlines. When she asked for a can of unopened soda, the flight attendant refused on the grounds that it may be used as a weapon. When she tried to defend herself, another passenger yelled: “You Muslim, you need to shut the f*** up...Yes, you know you would use it as a weapon. So shut the f*** up” (Sanchez, 2015). Another incident was about an Arab American man who was assaulted for speaking Arabic (Dalbey, 2015, para. 1). Another example was a Muslim boy in a Seattle high school who was beaten simply for being a Muslim; he suffered a hemorrhage behind his eye and a collapsed lung (Dorward, n.d., para. 7). In a national survey by the Pew Research Center in 2013, 42 percent of respondents said Islam was more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its believers (Sanchez, 2015, para. 31). Hate crimes like these are becoming an everyday occurrence. Shockingly, surveys have shown that the majority have this distorted perception about Islam promoting violence amongst its followers. This could lead to indifference to the violence against Muslims, which is just as deadly as hatred and prejudice.

Conclusion

This report approached this topic with the intention of objectively examining the opposing sides, and evaluating their arguments and evidences. After thorough and careful analyses of the facts, mitigating factors and events, this report had concluded that the Clock Boy was an issue of immense social relevance, thus was deserving of the extensive media and public attention. It was but a symptom of a more crippling disease in our society right now – islamophobia. The naming and identification of islamophobia is crucial to our society’s endeavor to vanquish it: we can only defeat what we know exists and persists. This irrational fear had gone on for too long unnoticed and unaddressed. The Clock Boy once again called on to correct this societal bigotry. The Clock Boy’s story was not about the clock. It was about the prejudice and discrimination that Ahmed Mohamed suffered because of the color of his skin and his religious beliefs.

After the examinations of the evidences, arguments and relevant laws and legislation, this report recommends that MacArthur High School and Irving Police issue an official apology to Ahmed Mohamed for the emotional turmoil that they had caused. In light of the prevalence of islamophobia incidents in the society, this report proposes that Ahmed Mohamed be awarded either special damages or punitive damages. Aggravated damages are compensatory in nature, while punitive damages are awarded as punishment for egregious conduct (Duhaime Law, n.d., para. 8). Under the principle of stare decisis, this would set a precedent and would prevent more racial and religious profiling.

The Anti Ahmed and Pro Irving viewpoints and arguments confirmed the unfortunate reality: islamophobia is real and pervasive. These incidents of aggression, violence and discrimination against Muslims have become so quotidian and so mundane that our society has trivialized and normalized them. It is easy to recognize blatant dehumanization and discrimination, but not the ‘societal indifference’ to atrocities. The persecution of Muslims is now becoming psychologically and socially acceptable. Of the three viewpoints, the Pro Ahmed was the most legally sound and ethically superior, for it refused to condone the discrimination and aggression towards others based on their race, religion, and so forth. Ethics transcends culture, religion, time and conditions (Dr. F. Mensch, personal communication, March 8, 2016); and the rampant terrorist attacks do not give our society the permission to persecute Muslims. Islamophobia does not eradicate radicalism. Islamophobia does not solve terrorism. In fact, islamophobia reinforces extremism. Islamophobia and extremism are the two sides of the same coin: both are alike in their hatred of the other. This vicious cycle must be stopped.

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#Islamophobia #TheClockBoy #AhmedMohamed #SherryLynneComaniuk