Richard Dawkins, a well known atheist and biologist, said on Twitter over the weekend that Ahmed Mohamed had committed fraud by pretending to have invented the clock which he was arrested for last week.
Ahmed Mohamed
Dawkins also suggested that the 14-year-old had a particular motive for "disassembling and reassembling" and wanted to be arrested for fame and personal gain.
The media created a lot of hype regarding Mohamed's arrest, which resulted in the boy receiving invites to companies like Microsoft and even an invitation to the White House from Barack Obama.
While the attention that Ahmed Mohamed is receiving might be a little over the top, Dawkins is failing to see the bigger picture. Mohamed's story has brought to light an important issue in the US that is Islamophobia and institutional prejudice which needs to be addressed.