‘Clock kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar

Re:‘Clock kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar by Karunamon on Tuesday October 20, 2015 @06:07PM (#10422154)

"Going after him?"

AFAIK, all Dawkins said was that he didn't build a clock. Which he didn't, he took a circa 1980s Radio Shack clock out of its case and mounted it in a pencil box.

Apparently trivially verifiable facts are discriminatory now?

This whole thing stinks. I've seen nothing in either the police reports, the words of the involved people, or any hard, objective facts that indicate that this is a matter of anything other than garden variety school administrative stupidity.

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Re:‘Clock kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar by GuiA on Tuesday October 20, 2015 @06:11PM (#10422177)

Dawkins was being an ass for the sake of having the last word. Sure, nothing he did was impressive to the internet geniuses who have 10 years of experience and a college degree more than him. And so what? The kid was curious, that kind of initiative shouldn't be stifled. Because anyone who has worked with kids/teenagers in any capacity knows quite well how easy it is to kill that kind of thing in the bud. It takes a seed to grow a tree.

I would absolutely say that Dawkins was in fact "going after him" and being an asshole, even if he probably didn't fully understand why (but that makes the whole situation even sadder, that a scientist so visible to the public would be clueless about how to engage kids about science and engineering).

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Re:‘Clock kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar by beeboop on Tuesday October 20, 2015 @06:35PM (#10422318)

What he did is not impressive to literally anyone who has ever used a screwdriver. There is no initiative or creativity that goes into dumping the contents of a digital click into a pencil case. It was attention seeking.

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Re:‘Clock kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar by chimeracoder on Tuesday October 20, 2015 @06:16PM (#10422214)

> I would absolutely say that Dawkins was in fact "going after him" and being an asshole, even if he probably didn't fully understand why

Don't forget that Dawkins said that Islamophobia is a 'non-word'[0].

Dawkins was being an asshole, and he definitely knew why. Ignoring Ahmed Mohamed's religion and race and pretending like it's not relevant doesn't change the fact that this entire incident is inextricably linked to the fact that he is Muslim and not white.

[0] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/richard-dawkins-def...

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Re:‘Clock kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar by Karunamon on Tuesday October 20, 2015 @06:34PM (#10422315)

this entire incident is inextricably linked to the fact that he is Muslim and not white.

Based on what proof?

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Re:‘Clock kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar by dragonwriter on Tuesday October 20, 2015 @07:11PM (#10422499)

> Ignoring Ahmed Mohamed's religion and race and pretending like it's not relevant doesn't change the fact that this entire incident is inextricably linked to the fact that he is Muslim and not white.

There are various forms of malice and incompetence that can explain the official acts at the basis of the incident, so while there is certainly plenty of reason to think that might be a significant factor, I think its far from clear that it is.

The responses to the incident from various circles certainly provide plenty of evidence of both racism and Islamophobia, but I don't think its fair to say that it is unambiguously the case that the whole incident boils down to that (though I don't think its particularly unlikely.)

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Re:‘Clock kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar by cup on Tuesday October 20, 2015 @06:08PM (#10422163)

Well the question is why an internationally recognized biologist with millions of followers though the need to wade into the controversy. Also you're forgetting the tweets where he called the kid a fraud, and insinuated he might have wanted to be arrested for the attention.

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Re:‘Clock kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar by mozumder on Tuesday October 20, 2015 @06:10PM (#10422170)

I don't get why Dawkins is so against case-modding?

It's a valid design/art form.

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Re:‘Clock kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar by tedunangst on Tuesday October 20, 2015 @06:15PM (#10422207)

How does one go from Dawkins said he didn't build a clock to "Dawkins is so against case-modding"?

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Re:‘Clock kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar by mozumder on Tuesday October 20, 2015 @06:30PM (#10422284)

Because that's what he's criticizing - the fact that he didn't build the electronics, but only made a different case.

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