Muslim teen gets arrested for school project

[squealpiggy]

Difference is the only religion killing people today in these kinds of numbers is Islam.

Not true. Islam leads the world in the violent religion league table but Buddhism is putting up numbers too, especially in Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

I recognize that like 99% of muslims are perfectly law abiding people, but you don't see Christians blowing up world trade centers and **** in the name of their religion.

This happened in Manchester, England carried out by the IRA, a group whose affiliation is Catholic and which carried out sectarian violence for decades.

[Money_May]

http://popehat.com/2015/09/16/willfu...tandwithahmed/

Willful Paranoia: The Classic Excuse for Willful Paranoia #IStandWithAhmed

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015 BY KEN WHITE 93 COMMENTS

American lives are controlled by the thuggishly mediocre. The best measure of their control is this: when called out on their mediocre thuggery, they can comfortably double down.

Ahmed Mohamed, a bright and curious ninth-grader in Irving, Texas, learned that to his regret this week.

Ahmed made a clock. He likes to make thing and repair things and tinker with things, apparently. Last weekend he built a digital clock out of a circuit board and a power display and a digital display. There is, I suppose, a chance that I could do that without electrocuting myself, but I wouldn't bet on it.

In his head, Ahmed lives in an idealized world he learned about in robotics club: a world where individuality and curiosity and initiative are appreciated. Or at least he did. But this week he found out that he actually lives in a different world, a grim real world controlled by school administrators and cops who are deeply suspicious of individuality, if not openly hostile. Ahmed lives in a world where children's lives are limited by the stupid, ineffectual fear of the petty and the ignorant. He lives in a world where school administrators strip-search thirteen-year-old girls to look for ibuprofin and suspend eight-year-olds for making pretend finger-guns while playing cops and robbers. He lives in a world where police arrest seven-year-olds for bringing a nerf gun to class and perp-walk twelve-year-olds in front of their peers for writing "I love my friends" on a desk with a marker.

In that world, Ahmed's clever clock didn't earn him admiration. It earned him a trip to the principal's office, a contemptuous and skeptical interrogation by an officer of theIrving Police Department, a suspension, and a trip in handcuffs to a juvenile detention center — because a circuit board with a time display must be a bomb, or at least intended to look like a bomb.

Actually nobody thought the clock was a bomb. The school didn't think it was a bomb. The police admitted they never thought it was a bomb. The police admitted Ahmed never suggested it was a bomb, or that he meant for anyone to think it was anything but a clock. But grown-ups detained, interrogated, arrested, and handcuffed Ahmed because they couldn't conceive of why a kid would build his own clock:

“We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb,” McLellan said. “He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation.”

Asked what broader explanation the boy could have given, the spokesman explained:

“It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?”

Did the putative adults pestering Ahmed do it because his name is Ahmed Mohamed and he's brown? Maybe. “Yup. That’s who I thought it was,” said one officer mysteriously upon seeing him. But on the other hand, this is the era of zero tolerance and of institutionalized paranoia and of petty little people using fear to hold on to power. This is what our kids' lives are like, and we've decided to accept it. Schools are safer now than before, but we've decided to feed on the fear the media feeds us and accept that they are more dangerous, justifying harsher treatment of kids. Kids are safer than ever, but we've consented to being constantly terrified about various menaces to them. Cops are safer, but we've decided to accept their narrative that they are the targets of an unprecedented war, and hand them the power they say they need.

My mother was a school administrator, and there are many decent and concerned school administrators. But to be blunt, school administrators were generally not the kid who built his or her own clock at 14. (Cops were generally the kid who beat up the kid who built the clock.) There are two ways for school administrators to deal with the unfamiliar, the unknown, the different: they can try to learn about it, and even nurture it, or they can react to it with fear and suspicion. We've told school administrators and police "we choose fear, and we want you to choose fear too."

Cops and school administrators are utterly confident in our support when they abuse someone like Ahmed. You can see it in the response of principal Dan Cummings:

"I recommend using this opportunity to talk with your child about the Student Code of Conduct and specifically not bringing items to school that are prohibited. Also, this is a good time to remind your child how important it is to immediately report any suspicious items and/or suspicious behavior they observe to any school employee so we can address it right away. We will always take necessary precautions to protect our students."

In other words, faced with a freakish overreaction by the school, and the suspension and detention of a student for building a clock that nobody ever thought was dangerous, the school's response is to remind students that some items are prohibited (even though nobody says the clock was), and to exhort students to report "suspicious" items and behavior. In response to a public saying "you're paranoid," the school's response is "you're goddamn right I am, and you should be too."

When I was a kid, schools and cops generally didn't do anything about bullying. Now they profess to be very concerned about it, and there are elaborate programs in place that purport to combat it. But educators and cops either don't grasp, or don't care, that their culture of fear encourages bullying. Detaining and humiliating a geeky kid who built a clock, and following up with a self-justifying "if you see something, say something" warning, sends an unmistakable message: different is suspicious. That's a bully's attitude, too.

We're expected to give cops and administrators the benefit of the doubt. I don't: I think they are like any other human beings. There are some good and some bad. Some care, and some are doing what they do to increase their own power. But even the well-intentioned who participate in a culture of fear are blameworthy. To them, I say this: you say you're trying to protect our children. But instead you've devoted your career to making the world a worse place for them.

[SlySlickSmooth]

Bro, not every single white american guy is born with a silver spoon, just like every minority isn't born with nothing and poor.

Yes, racism still exists, obviously. I'm usually with you on most everything man, but this came off in general like being white means you don't get ****ed with in anyway whatsoever, and that if you're a minority you're getting ****ed with regardless non stop all the time. Just being honest and letting you know how this comes across.

There's loads of class discrimination in today's world too man.

There's lots of racism still around today, but in general I would tell most poor people that are minorities, how is it a white guys fault that you're in this situation??? At some point, you have gotta start taking responsibility and not lay your problems on others

I've seen and grown up with way too many Hispanic people from my old neighborhood that have gone on and done well to think the white man is holding people back.

Again, that's not to say racism doesn't exist, it obviously does. But the only thing that bothers me is people who seem to point the finger at white racism, but then act like racism from a minority to white people doesn't exist.

People point out white racism because at one point laws stopped targeting other white immigrants as individual nationalities (in America) and unified whites under the law but still identified everyone else as different.

Its just easier to point it out when all of white America generally unifies under "Caucasian."

Most white people I've met don't care about their ancestral heritage. Usually its Italians or Irish that represent the most in my experience. But I've yet to meet an American that takes pride in their (possible) British heritage.

[SlySlickSmooth]

Honestly, he made a clock. I get maybe electronics classes weren't prevalent in the past but all he did was probably solder a few switches and wire together a circuit board you can probably buy at an online electronics store.

To some it looks no different than piecing together a computer, to some this is a safety concern because some kids come and shoot up schools and ISIS is blowing up ancient cities.

Just arresting the kid was ridiculous and repercussions are likely because the kid's father seems like an intelligent and important man.

[Weebler I]

That is a very foolish statement pal, I expect better from you. For one, most crime in European countries are committed by young muslims. They hump the mini carpet at home and don't eat pork while they do something else outside. They are ticking timebombs. You know how many of those "peaceful muslims" left to join Isis? Tens of thousands in a short timespan. You are not peaceful if you vote on polls to agree with extremism. The MAJORITY of muslims have an Islamic extremist mindset. Jas has posted plenty of proof.

When Europe goes into civil war due to immigration overdose, you will see how many of those "peaceful muslims" are going to fight against the people who took them into their lands and spoonfed their ungrateful candy asses.

It's still comparatively few of them. 10,000 against the 44 million Muslims in Europe? that's like 0.02%. Even if you multiplied the figure by 100, it would still only be 2%

Don't get me wrong, it's clear that taken as a group Muslims don't assimilate properly in Europe and I'm opposed to further immigration (one life lost to terrorism is 1 too many) but it's another thing to tar them all with the same brush assigning to them thought crimes.

Most just want to get on with their lives in peace, same as everyone else.

[Weebler I]

http://popehat.com/2015/09/16/willfu...tandwithahmed/

Willful Paranoia: The Classic Excuse for Willful Paranoia #IStandWithAhmed

Muslim terrorists created the "paranoia" in the United States when they flew three airliners into the World Trade Center & Pentagon killing thousands. There have been many foiled terrorist plots since then. They're the ones who made lives harder for law-abiding Muslims living in the US, this incident wouldn't have happened without their actions.

If there's a perceived threat, however small, it's going to be investigated, Americans are done taking chances with terrorism and I don't blame them one bit.

If Ahmed has a bad experience one day at school, that's too bad. The safety of the country outweighs the sensitivities of the few.

Schools are safer now than before[/B], but we've decided to feed on the fear the media feeds us and accept that they are more dangerous, justifying harsher treatment of kids.

Not sure if serious. When was "before"? how long ago was Sandy Hook? heck there was a shooting at a University in the US just two days ago.

[-MAKAVELLI-]

[BostonGuy]

911 is a Joke!

[Khalid X]

talk about now

and not the past

another typical deflection tactic

instead of condemning muslims or muhammed, you chose to criticise Christianity which had nothing to do with my post

just shows what type of person you are

And what type of person is that?

I could care less about Muhammad, Muslims or Islam.

At the same time, I'm not going to condemn a group of people (Muslims) due to the actions of some.

Out of the millions of Muslims who live peacefully, I should call them evil or condemn them because of the actions of radicals and extremist? Is that what you're suggesting?

[Khalid X]

Difference is the only religion killing people today in these kinds of numbers is Islam. I recognize that like 99% of muslims are perfectly law abiding people, but you don't see Christians blowing up world trade centers and **** in the name of their religion.

And I'm not religious at all, so I have no backing of Christians, I think most of them and most religious people in general are full of ****. But at least Christians, who have done HORRIFIC things in the past, have gotten their **** together in that aspect. The crazy Muslims are still as nuts as ever.

Well we will agree to disagree.

I judge people on an individual basis. The only time I look at a group is if that said group has a united ideology that all members believe and practice (e.g. I.S.I.S and their extreme views).

Sorry, but I'm not simple minded to look at a few bad apples and group everyone in that same category.