Posted on 10/20/2015 4:51:44 PM PDT by markomalley
Ahmed Mohamed, famous across the country as “Clock Boy,” will be moving from the U.S. to Qatar. His family made the announcement Tuesday, just one day after his much-anticipated meeting with President Barack Obama.
“After careful consideration of all the generous offers received, we would like to announce that we have accepted a kind offer from Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) for Ahmed to join the prestigious QF Young Innovators Program, which reflects the organization’s on-going dedication to empowering young people and fostering a culture of innovation and creativity,” the family said in a statement. Ahmed will receive a full-tuition scholarship to attend school in Qatar. His parents and two sisters will be moving as well. (RELATED: Qatar Forced Slaves To Run Marathon Shoeless)
The family’s statement included one comment from Ahmed himself.
“I loved the city of Doha because it’s so modern,” he said. “I saw so many amazing schools there, many of them campuses of famous American universities. The teachers were great. I think I will learn a lot and have fun too.”
Mohamed became a national sensation when the story circulated that he was arrested and suspended from his Irving, Texas school after his homemade clock was mistaken for a bomb. Obama invited him to the White House, he received a huge set of tech goodies from Microsoft, and he was invited to Google’s California headquarters based on his reputation as a young inventor. Mohamed’s saga is treated as an emblematic case of American ignorance and Islamophobia holding back an inventive young mind.
But over time, mounting criticisms have been levied against the Mohamed family. Techies pointed out that Mohamed’s “homemade” clock was really just a commercial clock with its casing removed. Others suggested Ahmed may have deliberately provoked the incident by repeatedly plugging in his clock in class even after being told not to.
More recently, the Mohameds attracted criticism when they met with Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan who is best known for overseeing genocide in the Darfur region. (RELATED: Clock Boy Plans Detour To Mecca Before Meeting Obama)
The family says adapting to Qatar won’t be so difficult.
“Qatar is in the Arab world, but it also feels like Texas. It’s like Texas in Qatar,” said Ahmed’s sister Eyman.
But Qatar is in fact quite different from Texas. Notably, the country’s human rights record is positively appalling. The country is an absolute monarchy ruled by a Al-Thani family, promised parliamentary elections have never been held, and the country is run on Sharia law. The country has been rated as having the fourth-highest concentration of slave laborers in the world. (RELATED: BBC Journalists Jailed For Telling Truth About Qatar)
Freedom of speech is sharply limited in the country as well. In 2011, for instance, poet Mohammed Rashid al-Ajami was sentenced to life in prison for insulting the country’s emir, though the sentence was later reduced to a mere 15 years. The country also prohibits non-Muslim missionary activities and restricts the public worship of non-Muslims, a noted contrast to the softer “Islamophobia” the Mohameds have encountered in America.
Can his sister actually study in Qatar?
Good riddance, goodbye. Good place for the tyke. Unfortunately, we’ll more than likely meet again at some point in time...perhaps when his practice has provided what he seeks. There’s NO PLACE like Texas. We’re one of a kind.
Maybe he can invent women’s rights while he’s over there.
Five less of them we have to worry about.
Did they obtain citizenship while they were in the US, anybody know?
He make's his appearance at 3:25
Great news. I am convinced it was a setup from day one.
Is his entire family leaving with him?
This is so friggin ridiculous. This whole was staged from start to finish. Now they are leaving America because we are so intolerant and islamophobic,and liberals will use this case to prove how bigoted American society is.
From the original incident with him bringing the so called clock to school, to his arrest and discipline by the school, to the mock outrage perpetrated by CAIR , to the tours of tech places such as Google to the White House visit to the visit to Islamic countries, this whole thing has been stage manager from start to finish. All to.make some half assed political statement.
He’ll soon be shown with IS holding a decapitated head.
Couldn’t ask for a better outcome. Now we need to lock the gates behind them.
Can you take obuma with you?
What is Clock Boy going to do for parts?
There are no Radio Shacks in Qatar.
Good riddance Amen. Take every Muslim in America with your sad ass.
We need that “WELL... BYE” meme from Tombstone.
Not a clock. He used a 60 second timer, a basic component of bomb making. Only needed to hook up to some semtex....The device he made simply replaced the outer shell with a cigar box. Cool clock, huh?
That's the part where this outfit - "Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) for Ahmed to join the prestigious QF Young Innovators Program" - finds out that Clock Boy is a one trick pony who never actually invented or innovated anything.
Unless there's a big demand in the Islamic World for disassembled clocks stuffed into oversized pencil cases.
Been looking for pics of the meeting. Funny that I can’t find them....
Good fooking ridance!
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