Socially, I'd think in most parts of the country he can choose between being "hey, check out the funny story behind my 15 mins of fame Ahmed" to his friends, "I too have been a victim of police oppression Ahmed" or just another normal kid with an extremely common Islamic name. I doubt many of your friends that think he's a terrorist would recognise him if he walked past them on the street tomorrow, unless he happened to be carrying a clock.

Yeah, it's a situation that should never have happened. If your friends think he's a terrorist, get new friends. It's one to think his family faked it for attention (which I don't, but it isn't like the father doesn't have a history of attracting attention to himself on purpose), another to just call them terrorists.

Me getting new friends doesn't help Ahmed. The same attitude is all over. That's my point. Huge portions of America think the kid's a terrorist. That's not HN exaggeration. That is literally the words coming off their keyboard. I don't think he stood a chance of a normal life in America.

I guess I can't argue that he'd have a normal life now. I totally don't buy that "huge portions of america think the kid's a terrorist", but we can stop our discussion here.