The Patriot Post® · Ahmed's Cash for Clocks

Remember Ahmed “The Clock Kid” Mohamed? The 14-year-old Texas student who was interrogated for bringing a homemade “clock” to school that looked more like an explosive? His story begat sympathy and remorse from fellow Muslims and Islamic sympathizers all around the globe. Not long after the incident, Ahmed and his family moved to Qatar to escape supposed discrimination in America. Well, he’s back in the news, this time seeking reparations — to the tune of $15 million.

According to The Washington Post, Ahmed’s family is “seeking not only financial reparations but written apologies from the city’s mayor and police chief.” The Post continues, “The letter of demand alleges that officials at Ahmed’s school never really thought that his homemade clock, assembled from ‘spare parts and scrap pieces he had around the house,’ was a bomb. Attorneys claim that Ahmed showed it to another teacher earlier in the day without consequence. But in his English class, a teacher told him it ‘looked like’ a bomb.”

Ahmed’s attorney Kelly Hollingsworth says the family is experiencing cognitive dissonance: “Qatar is nice, but it is not Texas. … Are [the Mohameds] devout people devoted to their faith? Absolutely. But they are Texans, too, and they want to come home. What we are seeking is for them to be able to do that with their heads held high.” That’s interesting. At the very least, the family quietly concedes that America, despite its “discriminatory” demeanor, is still a better place to live than a predominately Muslim country. But why do they need $15 million to keep “their heads held high”? National Review’s Ian Tuttle writes, “The City of Irving and Irving ISD should refuse them a single red cent. If the Mohameds want reparations, then they ought to have to make their case — not before a gaggle of cameras, but in a court of law.” Maybe, just maybe, this legal lottery was the plan all along.