Zayd Stands With Ahmed

Guest blogger: ZaydOur 13 year old son Zayd has always loved tinkering  - making things out of rubber bands, paper clips and cardboard that he finds in his desk drawer, coming up with science experiments to prove his various theories, rummaging the woods for supplies to build backyard shelters for creatures, doing snap circuits in every conceivable permutation. He especially loved tinkering with his grandfather, the engineer; you can imagine the joy this gave my dad.  Last time we went to visit my parents, my dad bequeathed to Zayd a book that I always remember seeing around our house growing up: The Reader's Digest Fix-It-Yourself Manual. He signed it to Zayd, "Take good care of this book. I am very impressed with our work." I hope Zayd continues to tinker to his heart's content. I hope he creates, and invents, and experiments, and concocts. And when he comes up with something really cool, I hope he takes it to school to share with his teachers. And I pray that they are amazed.Here's a letter Zayd wrote to his school administration.Dear Teachers,When I heard about what had happened to Ahmed Mohamed at his school in Texas, I felt something that I can’t really put into words. It’s like the feeling you get when you study for a test for a week, stay up until 11 the night before trying to understand everything, and then end up flunking the test – it’s a mix of anger, sadness, and being confused. How can a 14 year old boy, just like me, be arrested and forced out of his school in cuffs for bringing in a clock? I’m pretty sure if this was anyone else of any other faith, name, or background this wouldn’t have happened. This looked like a clock, it worked like a clock, it was a clock. Anyone else would have been commended heavily for creating something like this at 14; but his name was Ahmed, so it must have been a bomb. How can Ahmed’s teacher listen to the blatant lies that the media is feeding the world about Islam and Muslims. What is even more remarkable is that even after Ahmed was arrested and interrogated and not given his rights and found not guilty, he was still suspended from school and the mayor of the town he lives in still defended the school’s decision. Now that this has finally taken heat on social media, there is a bright side. People can now see how foolish and utterly unacceptable it is for religious stereotypes to go to such an extreme. Of course you cannot get rid of all stereotypes, but to go so far as to arrest a 14 year boy just because of his religion is wrong and hopefully people all around the world can see this now.I’ve always loved to experiment and make things, especially circuits with my grandfather and all sorts of contraptions out of things I’d find lying around. This weekend, I went to the Maker Faire and was inspired by all these young inventors. It was amazing to see kids even younger than me, make drones that take pictures, a 3D version of checkers, and a laser baseball speed sensor with a patent pending. Maybe one day I’ll invent something really cool too.#IStandWithAhmed-Zayd Ali