MIT hackers show support for Ahmed Mohamed

Sep. 25, 2015

MIT hackers show support for Ahmed Mohamed

Four days after high school student Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for building a clock that his teachers mistook for a bomb, hackers at MIT showed their support for the 14-year-old by constructing their own digital clock display and hanging it over a banister in Lobby 7 last Friday.

The functional clock was displayed with a banner reading “#IStandWithAhmed” as well as exposed circuitry at the back.

The hack was eventually removed at around 12:40 p.m. due to concerns that it might fall down.

Ahmed, a 9th grader from Texas, was arrested on Sept. 14 after being accused of bringing a “hoax bomb” to school. In fact, he had constructed a digital clock at home and had brought it to school to show his teacher. An outpouring of support and encouragement on social media commended Ahmed’s creativity and condemned the arrest as an attack based on Muslim stereotypes.

Ahmed has since been invited to visit the White House, Facebook, and MIT, which he has said is his dream school.

—Adrian Sy

4 Comments

Liar over 8 years ago

You lied Adrian Sy. Shame on you Adrian Sy, you are a liar. This is the typical behavior of Tech journalists. All they do is lie. This is the entire reason why The Tech banned non-MIT addresses-- it dampens their efforts to lie.

Mainstream journalists are brainless, dishonest, fraudulent, untrustworthy, empty, unpleasant, stiff, vicious, weak and demagoguic. And the Tech is no exception. I've seen it first hand repeatedly. You cannot trust them.

LIE 1: " In fact, he had constructed a digital clock at home "

No. He bought a clock from Radio Shack, took it out of its case and put it in a box (this takes seconds to do). Taking a clock out of its case is not constructing a digital clock. It's deconstructing a clock. It takes seconds to do and involves zero "constructing." That's like saying I construct a pillow by taking it out of its pillowcase.

LIE 2: " to show his teacher "

No, not singular. He showed multiple teachers. School isn't commenting officially due to secrecy rules, but it appears he showed the first teacher, and the teacher told him to put it away because it looked like a bomb, but he kept showing more teachers, and they called him in because it was ticking and looked exactly like a bomb.

"Ahmeds creativity" is not engineering creativity. It's PR creativity from Ahmed and his dad, who snapped a picture of Ahmed in his handcuffs. Ahmed got tons of free stuff, his dad got free publicity, from self-hating liberals that selfishly signal their "virtue" by claiming Muslims (who are a very violent group) are oppressed. (Ahmed's dad is, by the way, an experienced politician in Sudan. And politicians are the only group that rivals journalists in dishonesty. And the family is now milking the media attention on social media and elsewhere.)

Liar over 8 years ago

A vide of Ahmed's "creativity":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHk_6Vh4Qeo

Herms '87 over 8 years ago

Radio Shack, 1986 Catalog, 150. "MICRONTA Alarm Clocks. Jumbo LED Digital ... 63-765."

Liar over 8 years ago

IStandWithAhmed--

Learn how this cool entrepreneur took advantage of American communism ("Muslims are oppressed!") to get thousands of dollars of free stuff, a Facebook internship and a visit to the White House.