When Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old MacArthur High School freshman in Irving, Texas, awoke for school Monday morning, he had no idea his invention would lead to arrest and subsequent suspension.

Mohamed had an ingenious idea to build a digital clock out of a metal pencil case, and then present the invention to his engineering teacher.

His teacher praised Mohamed on his invention, but advised him to keep it in his backpack for his remaining classes.

In English the clock began to beep, and his teacher confiscated it, thinking it was a bomb.

Later, Mohamed was yanked out of class with the principal and a police officer. Mohamed was led to a room with five police officers and interrogated at length.

After, Mohamed was handcuffed and escorted to a juvenile detention center where he was fingerprinted and had mug shots taken and was interrogated again before his parents arrived to take him home.

Mohamed was subsequently suspended from school for three days.

The question remains if this was a normal reaction to misunderstood items or was Mohamed dragged through extra troubles because of his Islamic descent.

It seems a bit unnecessary to confiscate the clock in one class period and later come in and arrest him in front of everyone. The school claims that the officers were called in because the clock resembled a “movie bomb” yet there are no reports of a bomb squad being called.

There is also photographic evidence of the officers getting into the car with Mohamed and his “movie bomb.”

I’m not sure about anyone else, but I can assure you that I would never get in the car with anything that I thought could potentially blow up.

Islamaphobia seems to be heavily incorporated in this particular case. It seems that ever since the attack on the twin towers, people of Islamic descent are always linked to terrorism.

I went to high school with an Egyptian boy who once told me that he considered moving back to Egypt with his parents because he was tired of the dirty looks he received from our classmates and teased about being a terrorist.

Mohamed told news reporters that as he walked into the interrogation room one of the officers joked that Mohamed was just what he thought. What exactly did he mean by that? Was it the fact that he wore glasses or was it because of brown skin?

I never understood how some Americans could feel so comfortable judging someone because of their skin color. Why is it okay for us to say that we feel uncomfortable around a Muslim student because of 9/11 but not okay to say we feel uncomfortable around a white student because of Columbine?

The principal also sent a letter out to the parents at the school informing them of the incident and reminding them to talk to their children about “reporting suspicious activity” and to not bring “prohibited items to school.” I don’t really know what is so suspicious about a clock.

Although I understand the school is concerned about the safety of its students, it seems to me that this was way over the top.

If the principal thought it was a bomb why wasn’t the bomb squad called? Why were the students not escorted outside to a safe distance while the device was being investigated?

Subsequent suspension also seems to be taking it too far since it was determined that it was just a clock and that Mohamed had no malicious intent upon bringing it to school.

All of this leads me to believe that Mohamed’s race played a part in the school, as well as the police offers, reaction.

The only thing that was blown up that day was this situation.