| Welcome to Zatalounge Zatalounge is a chat forum provided for those who wish to present their personal views, opinions, or insights on all sorts of topics. Everyone has an opinion and they don't always agree. This website seeks to promote differences of opinion and discussions among users so that everyone gets to have their say. Become a registered member or be our guest. It's your choice! |
| Muslim group doesn't fault school or police for boy's arrest | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 17 2015, 10:11 PM (655 Views) | |
| Guest | Sep 17 2015, 10:11 PM Post #1 |
|
Unregistered
|
Muslim group doesn't fault school or police for boy's arrest RVING, Texas — One of the largest Muslim groups in Texas said Thursday that it does not fault police and school officials who handcuffed and suspended a 14-year-old Muslim boy after he brought a homemade clock to class that they mistook for a possible bomb. Instead, Khalid Hamideh of the Islamic Association of North Texas blamed political leaders for espousing inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric and creating a "climate of fear." "We're not pointing a finger at the school district or the police department," Hamideh said. "Under the current climate that exists in this country, you can't really blame them because when they see something like that, they have to react." The association operates the mosque attended by the family of Ahmed Mohamed, the suburban Dallas student who became a sensation on social media after word spread about his clock and the way he was treated. Ahmed was pulled from class Monday after he showed the device to a teacher. He was questioned by the principal and police, then handcuffed and taken to the police station. The Muslim community is concerned that Ahmed was interrogated without a lawyer or his parents present and was led out in handcuffs, Hamideh said. Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd has said department policy requires that handcuffs be used to protect officers and others. Authorities declined to seek charges against the boy, saying there was no evidence he intended to cause alarm. They said he's free to retrieve his clock at the police station. A police photo of the device shows a carrying case containing a circuit board and power supply wired to a digital display. School district spokeswoman Lesley Weaver did not return a call for comment Thursday but previously said school administrators followed district policy, which allows staff to take action if a student has a "look-alike" weapon or engages in behaviors that "substantially disrupt or materially interfere with school activities." Ahmed's father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, said Thursday that his son would not be returning to MacArthur High School. He said the family is still deciding on where he will go next. The boy's sister, Ayisha Mohamed, 17, said Thursday she believes her brother is helping to change people's minds about Muslims. She said her "heart just dropped" when she heard police had detained him. "It was a bad thing that turned into a blessing," she said. As Ahmed's story spread across social media, Twitter soon erupted with support for the teen. The hashtag #IStandWithAhmed was tweeted more than 1 million times. President Barack Obama invited him to the White House, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg posted that he wanted to meet him. A NASA scientist asked Ahmed to give him a call in a couple of years for a job opportunity. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also weighed in, cautioning that he did not know all the facts but that police were mistaken to arrest the boy. "The last thing we want to do is put handcuffs on a kid unjustifiably," he told The Dallas Morning News. "It looks like the commitment to law enforcement may have gone too far." On Thursday, Irving high school students said Ahmed has a reputation as a tinkerer and creator. He made small robotics, fixed people's phones and assembled a remote that could turn on projectors at school, they said. "I remember seeing him in middle school, and he used to always bring stuff," said Sara Williams, 15. "He was just one of those kids that created stuff." Nicholas Martin, also 15, said authorities "were just taking precautions" when they confiscated the clock, but he believes they overreacted because of Ahmed's ethnicity. Ahmed's father emigrated from Sudan and twice ran for the presidency of that country. Fourteen-year-old Pedro Andrade said school officials were right to be cautious but added, "If they really did think that it was a bomb, why didn't they evacuate?" The controversy follows other incidents this year involving anti-Muslim sentiment, including a backlash against a proposed Muslim cemetery northeast of Dallas and a Republican lawmaker who told her staff to ask visiting Muslims to declare allegiance to America. Also, the Irving City Council endorsed one of several bills in the state Legislature to forbid judges from rulings based on "foreign laws." "All of these people who push this hate agenda need to engage the Muslim community and to understand the Muslim identity in this country," Hamideh said. Back in May, Texas law enforcement was on heightened alert when two men opened fire in the Dallas suburb of Garland outside a center hosting a cartoon contest with depictions of the prophet Muhammad. Both attackers were shot dead, and an officer was shot in the leg. From the other side of the world, the Islamic State group made an unproven claim of responsibility. Cathie Adams, president of the conservative Texas Eagle Forum and former chairwoman of the Texas Republican Party, said Thursday that Ahmed's clock looked suspicious and that authorities were right to act. She said the boy was "pushing the envelope" and provoking a response. "Was he testing the system? And why?" http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/muslim-group-doesnt-fault-school-or-police-for-boys-arrest/ar-AAeoyVu |
|
|
| Tybee | Sep 18 2015, 06:10 AM Post #2 |
|
This was a cock-up from the get-go. The kid and his family were remiss in not making sure his teacher and the principal were advised what he would be bringing to school. Surely the kid and his family knew the thing looked like a briefcase bomb and might scare people. As usual, people (even smart people) just don't think.
Edited by Tybee, Sep 18 2015, 06:10 AM.
|
![]() |
|
| Guest | Sep 18 2015, 10:01 AM Post #3 |
|
Unregistered
|
Agreed. It looks more and more like they did this just for attention, or to sue the school and get money. |
|
|
| Guest | Sep 18 2015, 10:04 AM Post #4 |
|
Unregistered
|
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/why-some-muslims-don%E2%80%99t-want-ahmed-mohamed%E2%80%99s-blackness-to-be-ignored/ar-AAeqves Ahmed Mohamed is now a 14-year-old with a national following and a long list of powerful people on his calling card. After he was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school to impress his teachers, the ninth-grader has become symbolic of the worst skeletons in America’s closet: growing hysteria and over-criminalization in American schools, Islamophobia and racism. As the news of Mohamed’s plight spread, some of the earliest accounts associated the teen, who is of Sudanese descent, with the word “brown,” a fuzzy bit of racial jargon that typically refers to non-black people of South Asian or sometimes Latin American descent. And others openly wondered how the world might have reacted to Mohamed’s story if he had been black. But Mohamed’s racial identity is as complex as the country of his descent. The African nation of Sudan is predominantly Muslim and is comprised of some 600 ethnicities. Arabs and indigenous Africans have intermarried and mixed there for centuries and most speak Arabic. To wit, the phrase given to the region now inhabited by Islamic people in Africa, which includes modern-day Sudan, is “Bilad al-Sudan” and it means literally “the land of negroes” or “the land of blacks.” Further complicating the situation is the fact that high-profile praise came from such figures as Indian American comedian Aziz Ansari, who compared his own experience to Mohamed’s. “#IStandWithAhmed cause I was once a brown kid in the south too,” Ansari wrote on Twitter. [Why a ninth-grader’s arrest over a home-built clock struck a chord across America] Anil Dash, a tech entrepreneur of Indian descent, who was among the first to publicize Mohamed’s story to his more than half-a-million followers, told The Washington Post that he was struck by the teen’s story simply because he saw himself in the “skinny brown kid.” “My identification was literally: I physically looked similar. I had the same glasses and I was skinny. It was on a purely physical level,” Dash acknowledged. Dash reached out to Mohamed’s family and counseled them on how to cope with the impending deluge of media attention. He cautioned them to change their passwords, create a twitter account. Dash was the first to tweet out the now-infamous photo of Mohamed handcuffed in his faded NASA T-shirt. But Dash said that he actually doesn’t know whether Mohamed or his family identify as black. But they have been clear from the beginning that their religious identity is an important — if not the most important — factor in the 14-year-old’s treatment by the school and police. Online, another discussion brewed. Did the repetitious association of Mohamed with the term “brown” erase his blackness and render it irrelevant to his experience as an American Muslim of African descent? “The issue of race in America, especially when it comes to Sudanese Americans, is complex,” added Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Michigan, who also weighed in on the debate on Twitter. “There’s a misunderstanding among many people about what Arabness means. Arabness and blackness are not mutually exclusive, just like being Latino and black are not mutually exclusive. “That’s a part of his identity. Someone like Ahmed can be equally American, Muslim, Arab and black,” he noted. [Scientists and the public surge to support boy arrested for homemade clock] Ahmed is Sudanese, Sudanese is African, African is black,…now tell me how "important" Egyptians weren't black I need you racist, anti black, islamaphobics to stop referring to Ahmed as a "brown Muslim" because highlighting his blackness bothers you. I notice a lot of people call Ahmed brown and not black lol… These same people will assure you the term black has nothing to do with color But what does “brown” even mean? The answer depends on who you ask. According to Dash, it is a “loving inside version of people’s color,” that is in some way pan-ethnic in nature. It applies unevenly to Asian, North African, Middle Eastern and Hispanic people. But he recognizes that in America, it is rarely used to describe black people. “Most of my black friends that I talk to about my identify say ‘brown is not me,’ which I totally get,” Dash said. “Being black is a unique thing in this country.” And according to Walid, a Muslim and African American who says he is often mistaken for being Sudanese, the term “brown” also rarely describes people from Sub-Saharan Africa. (Sudan is sometimes referred to as a North African country because like other countries in the region, it is predominantly Islamic and Arab-speaking. But it is also sometimes referred to as a Sub-Saharan African country or a North East African Nation.) [Why Ahmed Mohamed should be a topic at Wednesday’s GOP debate] “It’s not simple, but definitely brownness is not conferred to Sub-Saharan Africans,” he said. “That term, brown, is predominantly used for people who are non-white, whose heritage comes from Latin America or South Asia and perhaps North Africa. But Sub-Saharan Africans period are not referred to as ‘brown.’ “Most Sudanese Americans who are walking the streets in Western-style clothing are indistinguishable from African Americans,” he added. If the debate has smacked of racial policing, as some have suggested, it shouldn’t, according to Hind Makki, a Sudanese American who has also pushed for people to be more “precise” when referring to Mohamed and his family. Hugely assured by all the support for Ahmed. Not so much by those tearing chunks out of each other over whether he's "black" or "brown". “When people discuss Islamophobia, Muslims are racialized into this amorphous ‘brown,’ ” Makki noted. “If you’re from Africa, [being black] is a huge part of Muslim history. Even in the U.S. overall, a third of American Muslims are of African descent. “To erase that or to say that it’s really not important — that Muslims should be fine with being described as a generic brown — I don’t think that’s right,” she added. While first-generation immigrants like Makki’s parents often resisted being placed in a racial box, their children — like Ahmed — face the reality that in America, Sudanese Americans often view themselves as indistinguishable from black Americans, Makki said. It is part of a broader story of Muslim and Arab identity in America. For years, people of Middle Eastern and North African descent have protested being forced to check “white” on census forms that tacitly ignored the ethnic diversity within Arabic-speaking countries like Sudan that were — for political and expediency reasons — lumped in with Caucasians. The Census Bureau announced that it would consider adding a category Middle Eastern/North African to better account for the growing number of people of Arab descent who now live in America. Among those people, Afro-Arabs have a distinct Muslim story Makki said. “Every single Sudanese American person I know, from every Sudanese ethnic background that I know, identifies as black in America,” she added. “The African American and the black Muslim story in the U.S. is part of the Muslim story and you can’t erase it.” |
|
|
| Tybee | Sep 18 2015, 10:30 AM Post #5 |
|
I don't think the kid or his family had any nefarious motives. I just think none of them gave enough thought about what kind of problems bringing a briefcase full of wires and a clock into a school, without clearing it with the administration first, would cause. |
![]() |
|
| Deleted User | Sep 18 2015, 11:10 AM Post #6 |
|
Deleted User
|
That little snot knew exactly what he was doing. So did his dad and "women who show their hair are whores" scarf-wearing mom. They knew it looked questionable to put all those wires and a clock face into a metal briefcase. They knew it would bring them attention so they could pull the race/islamaphobia card. Notice how every second of the whole ordeal is photographed, complete with NASA t-shirt. Total scam. And it worked. The smug little asshole gets to be all over the news, gets to meet the President, and is already being courted by big named Universities. I'm going to get labelled a freeper here, which is completely wrong, but I don't care. I'm tired of being expected to toe the liberal line all the time. As a gay man, an atheist, and a feminist, I find these fuckers frightening. They get to deliberately pull pranks like this that are clearly provocative, and know good and well that anyone who complains will get labelled a neocon, racist bigot. Fed. Up. |
|
|
| Guest | Sep 18 2015, 11:10 AM Post #7 |
|
Unregistered
|
Indeed. I'm not sure why he did not tell his teacher that he was bringing it in for a project? |
|
|
| Tybee | Sep 18 2015, 11:19 AM Post #8 |
|
It's entirely possible they knew full well what this would do and did it for the attention. But from what little I've seen and read so far I'm just not getting that vibe from them. Right now I'm more inclined the think there were careless rather than nefarious. And if they did do it for the attention, it will most likely come out at some point and they'll be exposed. That sort always brags to others, and some others usually have loose lips. That said, I think it's a major mistake for Obama to be bringing them to the White House. Edited by Tybee, Sep 18 2015, 11:20 AM.
|
![]() |
|
| Erna | Sep 18 2015, 11:54 AM Post #9 |
|
When we were ignorant we hated and feared the Towel but now that we have learned that they are the victims we no longer hate or fear them. Actually we like and respect them. |
![]() |
|
| Tybee | Sep 18 2015, 11:57 AM Post #10 |
|
I don't know why but that gave me a major chuckle. "we hated and feared the Towel" :rofl
|
![]() |
|
| Deleted User | Sep 18 2015, 12:04 PM Post #11 |
|
Deleted User
|
I am well aware that the West's constant interference in the Middle East fostered the environment for fundamentalism to thrive. I'm well aware that places like Iran and Afghanistan were once fairly liberal places. And I'm not some Faux News spouting freeper who doesn't understand history. But until this culture stops treating its women like slaves and stops imprisoning and murdering gay people, it will be difficult for me to sympathize with their plight. I'm tired of toeing the line on this issue. |
|
|
| Erna | Sep 18 2015, 12:22 PM Post #12 |
|
When are where did you actually see the Towels imprison and kill sisters? In person witnessed? |
![]() |
|
| Tybee | Sep 18 2015, 12:34 PM Post #13 |
|
Haven't you watched the YouTube videos of the ISIS terrorists throwing gays off the roofs of tall buildings to their deaths. And then the disgusting mobs on the ground surround the bodies and pummel them with stones. Just do a YouTube search for "ISIS throws gay men off buildings". And yes, I know you won't believe it since you weren't there to witness it, but it happened many times. |
![]() |
|
| Erna | Sep 18 2015, 02:54 PM Post #14 |
|
We don;t believe the youtube videos, for so many reasons |
![]() |
|
| Guest | Sep 18 2015, 04:02 PM Post #15 |
|
Unregistered
|
What about the many pictures of gay and bisexual men who are executed in Iran and other countries? They're not fake either. |
|
|
| Guest | Sep 18 2015, 04:03 PM Post #16 |
|
Unregistered
|
Indeed it is a mistake for them to be invited to the white house. |
|
|
| Guest | Sep 18 2015, 04:57 PM Post #17 |
|
Unregistered
|
I wonder what Al Sharpton thinks about this? Do you think he has contacted the family? |
|
|
| Tybee | Sep 18 2015, 05:04 PM Post #18 |
|
Unless he thinks he can scam some money from that family I can guarantee you he doesn't give them one thought.
|
![]() |
|
| Guest | Sep 19 2015, 12:07 AM Post #19 |
|
Unregistered
|
Earlier this week, a 13-year-old kid named Coreco JaQuan Pearson sat down in front of a camera in the kitchen of his home in Grovetown, Ga. CJ had a lot on his mind: the 14-year-old Muslim student invited to the White House after he was wrongly arrested for building a clock thought to be a bomb; the young woman allegedly shot by an undocumented immigrant in San Francisco; the four Marines gunned down in Chattanooga over the summer; the Black Lives Matter movement. President Obama, CJ feared, didn’t have his White House in order. It was a lot to distill into a short message — one that would catch fire among CJ’s 35,000 Twitter followers and large YouTube audience. But CJ was determined to make this quick — and needed little more than two minutes to make his point. “Mr. President,” he began, speaking with a Southern twang. “When Kate Steinle was gunned down by an illegal immigrant, you didn’t do anything. You didn’t even call the family. You didn’t invite them to the White House. Is that okay? I don’t think so, Mr. President.” Twenty seconds had gone by — but CJ was just getting warmed up. “When cops are being gunned down, you don’t invite their family to the White House,” he said. “You never did.” This was just the set-up. Then came the punch. “When a Muslim kid builds a clock?” CJ said. “Well, come on by. What is this world that you are living in?” |
|
|
| Erna | Sep 19 2015, 04:00 AM Post #20 |
|
Please post link to these things, we have never ever once seen anyone actually killed in any of those videos. Please show us one that shows the real thing. or STFU with your CIA propaganda lies caca |
![]() |
|
| Deleted User | Sep 19 2015, 09:40 AM Post #21 |
|
Deleted User
|
The real problem here is that no one wants to have rational debates anymore. The conservatards are mostly just being racist on the issue, assuming the kid is a terrorist because he is Muslim and brown. The liberals are all screaming "Racism!" and "Islamaphobe!" at anyone who questions the situation. And never the twain shall meet. I am a gay, atheist, vegetarian, feminist, borderline socialist, democrat voting, liberal. I've never voted for a republican and never will. But from the reactions I got on my Facebook feed for suggesting that the kid showed a lack of judgment and shouldn't have brought the damn thing into a public school (and sorry, but it DOES look kind of scary), you'd think I was Sean fucking Hannity. Not happy with people on either side right now. |
|
|
| Tybee | Sep 19 2015, 09:54 AM Post #22 |
|
The hick halfwit in Grovetown, Ga. is the type who will find any reason to rail against anyone who isn't a 100% born "Murican". He's too stupid to realize that this kid IS a born "Murican", just like him. And this kid's ancestry is from a foreign country, just like his. Just not as many generations back. |
![]() |
|
| Tybee | Sep 19 2015, 09:58 AM Post #23 |
|
Unfortunately many people find it impossible to have a civil debate on many issues when it's done online. People tend to get far more ballsy and hateful when they're hiding behind the safety of their computer. Many of those same folks would more than likely make far more sense if you were standing face to face talking about the topic. Don't expect them to do any better PP because you're more likely to be constantly disappointed. Even the remote chance of actually getting viciously slapped about the head and shoulders tends to make many people act like they've got some sense. :rofl Edited by Tybee, Sep 19 2015, 10:00 AM.
|
![]() |
|
| Guest | Sep 19 2015, 11:23 AM Post #24 |
|
Unregistered
|
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/07/iran-executes-men-homosexuality-charges http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/12/iran-s-new-gay-executions.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Asgari_and_Ayaz_Marhoni |
|
|
| Erna | Sep 19 2015, 11:26 AM Post #25 |
|
We see words of propaganda and pictures of someone putting a rope around someone's neck and a long distance shot of what could be people with nooses which could be puppets hanging or any kind of photoshop....but where are the videos of people actually being killed??? If you believe this CIA hate propaganda then you are really stupid. Until we see people actually being killed we don't believe any of it. Edited by Erna, Sep 19 2015, 12:26 PM.
|
![]() |
|
| Deleted User | Sep 19 2015, 11:31 AM Post #26 |
|
Deleted User
|
Hon, You're wasting your time. Like any conspiracy theorist who accepts only that evidence which corroborates their preconceived notions, MPC will just claim those vids are faked or are CIA propaganda. Does our government lie to us? Yes. Do they involve themselves in questionable and unethical acts? Yes. Has it created the very conditions that allowed Muslim fundamentalism to grow and thrive? Likely. But anyone who can't acknowledge that middle eastern countries tend to be more violent towards women and gays is a fool not worth my time. Or yours. |
|
|
| Deleted User | Sep 19 2015, 11:32 AM Post #27 |
|
Deleted User
|
Ahhh. I see she fulfilled my prophecy before I could even finish typing it. |
|
|
| Guest | Sep 19 2015, 11:35 AM Post #28 |
|
Unregistered
|
Where's the smiley icon for 'in denial and crazy' when you need it?
|
|
|
| Guest | Sep 19 2015, 11:37 AM Post #29 |
|
Unregistered
|
Eh you're right. :) |
|
|
| Erna | Sep 19 2015, 12:02 PM Post #30 |
|
Why would an intelligent person believe that those links show people being killed? There is absolutely nothing showing people being killed. |
![]() |
|
| Guest | Sep 19 2015, 12:23 PM Post #31 |
|
Unregistered
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL_zP2pHp3w |
|
|
| Deleted User | Sep 19 2015, 12:28 PM Post #32 |
|
Deleted User
|
Let's face it. Most Muslims make Kim Davis look like Sharon Gless in QAF. |
|
|
| Erna | Sep 19 2015, 12:28 PM Post #33 |
|
a series of still photos of what look like sisters with rope around their necks. this proves zero. |
![]() |
|
| Guest | Sep 19 2015, 01:01 PM Post #34 |
|
Unregistered
|
I have no idea who that QAF character is but I never got into the show; but it's true that in the United States people are going apeshit about some clerk in Kentucky who was eventually forced to issue licenses for same gender marriage (or I guess the people wanting to get married just went elsewhere?), when there are more important bigots to worry about. |
|
|
| Guest | Sep 19 2015, 08:58 PM Post #35 |
|
Unregistered
|
I find it funny people think this young teen is an engineering genius when all he did was take the case off of a clock he bought on ebay or amazon, and put the clock's circutry into a briefcase. Did he or his parents stop to think what it looked like? |
|
|
| Guest | Sep 19 2015, 09:00 PM Post #36 |
|
Unregistered
|
They were executed. If you think that does not happen why don't you go to Iran or Saudi Arabia and try picking up men, and see what happens? |
|
|
| Deleted User | Sep 20 2015, 02:37 AM Post #37 |
|
Deleted User
|
Yes. They all knew full well what it would look like. They knew exactly what would happen, and that they would then be able to cry "Islamaphobia!" and become media darlings. They're all over the news, get to meet the president, already have colleges chasing the little brat, and they've raised thousands of dollars. And that's not even counting the lawsuit that is sure to come. Fame and easy money. All it takes is a well-planned prank. Kaching Kaching. We live in a world full of people who want easy fame and money without having to do any of the work for it. So well played. So cunning. Anyone who doesn't see that here is a fucking moron. |
|
|
| Erna | Sep 20 2015, 03:11 AM Post #38 |
|
you are the one who should go there since you are the one who believes the CIA lies - and with zero evidence yet! |
![]() |
|
| Tybee | Sep 20 2015, 06:42 AM Post #39 |
|
Not to turn this thread in an American politics thread (because I don't want to move it to the politics forum) it appears the Kim Davis may be going back to the slammer because she confiscated all the same sex marriage licenses her deputy issued and has re-issued them after removing any mention of her office (not her name since that wasn't on it anyway) from them. I pray tomorrow will see that fat slag taken back into custody. |
![]() |
|
| Guest | Sep 20 2015, 01:23 PM Post #40 |
|
Unregistered
|
I have no desire to go to any of those countries. Bisexual and gay men are imprisoned, killed, tortured, and executed there and it is real and does happen. |
|
|
| Erna | Sep 20 2015, 01:32 PM Post #41 |
|
in your world |
![]() |
|
| Guest | Sep 20 2015, 01:36 PM Post #42 |
|
Unregistered
|
Yes my world is called reality. |
|
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · General Discussion · Next Topic » |






:rofl
Where's the smiley icon for 'in denial and crazy' when you need it?

3:24 AM Jul 11