‘I felt like a terrorist’

Ahmed Mohamed is Muslim. His family comes from Sudan. Last week he built a clock at home and took it to MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, where he is in ninth grade. He says he wanted to impress his engineering teacher. Far from being impressed, the teacher found the device suspicious. Ahmed was reported to school officials and then the police. He was arrested and handcuffed. Police soon determined the clock was just a clock and not a bomb, and he was released without charge. After that, his story took off on social media. President Barack Obama praised Ahmed for his ingenuity and invited him to visit the White House. He received a shout-out from Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg. Others piped in to say that the only thing Ahmed is guilty of is being a Muslim in America. Officials in Irving defended the school and the police. The mayor conceded that if Ahmed were her child, she would be upset. But she said, “I do not fault the school and the police for looking into what they saw as a potential threat.” Ali Velshi speaks to Ahmed.