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Qatar offers study place to Texas 'clockmaker'

October 21, 2015

The Muslim teenager arrested when a teacher mistook his homemade clock for a bomb is moving to Qatar with his family. The announcement follows a visit to Washington at the White House's Invitation.

https://p.dw.com/p/1GrGh
Ahmed Mohamed Texas Jugendlicher USA Weißes Haus Washington
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/AP Photo/S.Walsh

The announcement came only hours after ninth grader Ahmed Mohamed was at the White House for an astronomy night hosted by US President Barack Obama.

The family said it had accepted an offer from the Qatar Foundation for the high school freshman to study at its Young Innovators Program.

"We are going to move to a place where my kids can study and learn, and all of them being accepted by that country," the teen's father Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, told The Dallas Morning News before boarding a Tuesday flight from Washington to Texas.

The son of Sudanese immigrants who live in a suburb of Dallas, the young robotics hobbyist brought in a home-made clock to impress a new teacher at MacArthur High School.

Instead, he was accused of building a hoax bomb and led away in handcuffs.

No charges were filed over the September 14 incident and last month the police department involved said it was reviewing their actions in the case.

Public outcry over the teenager's treatment at the hands of police led to accusations of racism and Islamophobia. President Barack Obama congratulated the teen on intellectual curiosity in what was seen as a pointed rebuke to school and police officials.

Guest of controversial Sudanese leader

Sudan Ahmed Mohamed mit Omar al-Bashir in Khartum
Ahmed Mohamed met President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum this month. The president is accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court .Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Shazly

Obama wasn't the only head of state to receive the Mohamed family. Sudanese state radio reported that father and son met last week with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

The case has been a polarizing issue in domestic US politics with many criticizing the school and police department's harsh response over a misunderstanding. But right-wing pundits and politicians have defended the police and school administration's response to a perceive safety threat.

jar/jm (AP, Reuters)