Recent news headlines feature the story of a boy being falsely accused of making a bomb and then being arrested. Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year old Sudanese Muslim boy living in Texas, built a homemade digital clock and brought it to school to show his teacher. When Mohamed showed his teacher the clock, she felt as if it were a threat to her, thinking it was a bomb. Authorities were called, and Mohamed was arrested on the grounds of building a hoax bomb.

When one suspects there is a bomb on school grounds, the bomb squad is called and the school is evacuated. A boy doesn’t take his “bomb” down to the office, nor does he ride with it in the back of a cop car. Had the administration really thought this was a bomb they would have treated it just as that and taken the necessary actions one does when there is a bomb threat. This was an easy way to discriminate against a little brown Muslim boy. A 14-year old boy was arrested because his teacher mistook his creation for a bomb. This was discrimination at its finest.

Mohamed’s homemade clock has gone viral on social media, and many showed their support for the boy with the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed. Many argue that this only happened because Mohamed was being profiled for being Muslim. Instances like these show that Islamophobia is still a problem in today’s society. Muslims are often labeled as “terrorist” because today’s culture has a skewed perception of what Islam is, which does not parallel what it really is about.

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It is so sad to think that this type of ignorance still exists today, and with so many resources out there one would think the hatred wouldn’t be so extreme. Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson has also made very ignorant comments about Islam. In an interview Carson said he “would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation,” claiming that Islam is not consistent with the Constitution.

Mohamed has also gotten the attention of the President as well. President Obama tweeted “Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.” The President invited Mohamed to the White House, and he accepted the offer. He also caught the attention of one of the co-founders of Facebook Mark Zukerburg, scientists at NASA, and presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.

Although many were in full support of Mohamed, there were people who were not. Sarah Palin and her daughter, Bristol Palin, were not in favor of President Obama’s support for Mohammed and his situation. Palin said that Obama’s “practice” of interjecting himself into the “issue-of-the-day” to seem like a “cool savior” “got old years ago.”

I stand with Ahmad Mohammad because discrimination is not okay in any circumstances.