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Home / World

Parallels with Apple founders underscore injustice

Washington Post
19 Sep, 2015 03:48 AM2 mins to read

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Ahmed Mohamed's arrest inspired many to show support for the 14-year-old. Photo / AP

Ahmed Mohamed's arrest inspired many to show support for the 14-year-old. Photo / AP

How arrest had everybody from comedians to the Commander in Chief talking about Ahmed Mohamed

The story of Ahmed Mohamed tugged at the heartstrings of minorities and misunderstood nerds everywhere.

He said he brought the homemade clock, an assemblage of a circuit board and some wiring, to school to impress his teachers. Instead he was handcuffed and taken to a juvenile detention centre, where he was fingerprinted before being released to his parents.

Both President Barack Obama and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg invited the teen to meet them. But one of the best responses came from Omar Ghabra, a medical student at the University of Washington, who tweeted: "An Arab-looking man of Syrian descent in a garage w/his accomplice building what appears to be a bomb. Arrest them."

The photos show Steve Jobs with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and an early prototype of the personal computer that made them rich and famous.

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Jobs was of Syrian descent; his biological father was a political refugee from the Syrian city of Homs, who met Jobs' biological mother while studying in Wisconsin. As a baby, Steve was adopted by Paul Jobs, who had a love of mechanics, and his wife Clara.

An Arab-looking man of Syrian descent in a garage w/his accomplice building what appears to be a bomb. Arrest them. pic.twitter.com/2i4f5PT0EB

— Omar Ghabra (@omarghabra) September 16, 2015

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.

— President Obama (@POTUS44) September 16, 2015

There are even more similarities between the stories. As Wozniak wrote on his Facebook page, Wozniak was also arrested when he was in 12th grade for bringing to high school what a principal thought was a bomb.

Wozniak, however, actually meant to trick the principal into thinking the device was a bomb.

The ticking digital device was actually a homemade metronome.

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The phrase Facebook couldn't handle

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