Cool Clocks & The Syrian Refugee Crisis – Intro to International Relations

On September 16, @POTUS tweeted the following:

“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’s tweet was sparked by a news storm following the arrest of Texas high school student Ahmed Mohamed.

Mohamed brought his homemade clock into school to show his classmates. His teacher suspected that the clock was a homemade bomb, so she reported it to school officials. Law enforcement was then contacted. According to Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd, the police who responded to the call noted that the clock was “certainly was suspicious in nature.” The student was eventually taken into custody for possession of a hoax bomb.

“Under Texas law a person is guilty of possessing a hoax bomb if he possess a device that is intended to cause anyone to be alarmed or a reaction of any type by law enforcement officers.”

After further investigation, they found no evidence to prove that Mohamed had intended to make a hoax bomb. Boyd said that there will be to charges filed. At the conclusion of his press conference, he added the following: “The Irving Police department has always experienced an outstanding relationship with our Muslim community.”

The police chief touched on what everyone is focusing on in this situation – how the boy’s religion and culture impacted the perceptions of his homemade clock. Many Americans believe that the reaction of police was intensified given the boy’s Muslim background.

Because of terrorism in the United States and the connection of terrorists to the Islamic tradition, some people are fearful of the entire Muslim population. While Mohamed’s arrest is an isolated incident that doesn’t impact the globe, the Syrian Refugee crisis is closely tied to the same fear.

On September 6, 2015 the Pope “[called] on every Catholic parish [in Europe] to take in one of the thousands of families coming to the region to flee conflict and poverty.” There was discomfort from some nations about the Pope’s request, most of it stemming from concerns about the religion and culture of the Syrian Refugees. Some nations, like Slovakia, have gone so far as to only accept Christians.

The discomfort with Muslims and the Islam religion runs deep in many places in the US and around the world. Given the urgency of the Syrian Refugee crisis, it is a conversation worth having.

We should ask ourselves where these feelings of discomfort are coming from – we must start at the root of the anti-muslim sentiment.

If you’re interested in digging into this topic more, here is a great article titled “Islamaphobia: Understanding Anti-Muslim Sentiment in the West.”

Dr. Datta says:

September 17, 2015 at 1:16 pm

This is a timely posting, reflecting tensions in the United States and the West against Muslims. It makes me want to explore more closely the sources of anti-Muslim sentiment in the West, and to see if there are ways to promote more pro-Muslim sentiment.

Madeline Wittich says:

September 23, 2015 at 11:55 am

Dr. Datta – It is interesting how this topic has gotten even more timely in the past couple of days. It is particularly applicable following Dr. Ben Carson’s comment about having a Muslim president. Here is an interesting editorial from the NY Times called, “The Republican Attack on Muslims.” Here is the part of the article that stuck out to me the most —

“Following Mr. Carson’s comments, some Republicans tried to suggest that anti-Muslim feelings existed only in parts of the party’s grass-roots base. Some argued that former President George W. Bush drew a line between the country’s antiterrorism efforts after 9/11 and a broader campaign against Muslims. ‘We’ve worked so hard to try to make it clear that that isn’t the case,’ said Tony Fratto, who was a press aide to Mr. Bush. ‘But each time somebody does this kind of thing, it makes it harder.'”

I don’t know how much President Bush actually worked to draw the line between antiterrorism efforts and the campaign against Muslims, but it is an interesting comment made by Bush’s former press secretary.

It seems that Obama is trying to do the same thing surrounding the arrest of Ahmed Mohamed – by inviting Ahmed to the White House he is trying to break down the campaign against Muslims. Other politicians are aiming to do the same thing, but rather than inviting Ahmed to the White House, they are taking to twitter to express their dissatisfaction with Ahmed’s arrest.