Ahmed Mohamed speaks to Dallas Morning News
Ahmed Mohamed says he was made to feel like a criminal after being arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school Dallas Morning News

Fourteen-year-old Texas boy Ahmed Mohamed, who was arrested for taking a homemade digital clock to his school in Irving, has now been offered an internship at Twitter. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also invited the teenager to visit him after US President Barack Obama called on the boy to show off his clock at the White House.

On Wednesday, 16 September, the arrest of the teenager was ridiculed on social media after staff at the school mistook the clock for a bomb and summoned the police. Soon, the hashtag #istandwithahmed was created on Twitter and Facebook, in support of the boy, who was released by the Irving police.

Post the incident, the White House, Facebook, Nasa and even Google offered Ahmed encouragement and invited him over. Twitter offered the aspiring engineer an internship at the social media giant. The company tweeted, "Hi @IStandWithAhmed, we love building things at @twitter too. Would you consider interning with us? We'd love it — DM us! #IStandWithAhmed

While Zuckerberg praised him and said:

You've probably seen the story about Ahmed, the 14 year old student in Texas who built a clock and was arrested when he took it to school.

Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed.

Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I'd love to meet you. Keep building.

Speaking about the attention he received from Obama and Zuckerberg, Ahmed, who is in the ninth grade at MacArthur High School said, "It felt really outstanding. I wanted to use this moment in the spotlight to try my best not just to help me but to help every other kid in the entire world that has a problem like this."

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