I wanted to share a few brief observations and comments about Ahmed Mohamed and the resulting attention.
Last night I was thinking about it, and I figured that there was probably already a Wikipedia page about him. And there is. While the page is currently being considered for deletion, presumably under their “notability” policy, even if this page is deleted, the flood of articles about him will live on (such as the one you are reading or this one by my favorite blogger). Where is the fairness in this?
Given that the president responded (and I loved his response), MIT responded (loved its response, too), as well as countless supportive and encouraging responses from individuals and organizations, these responses are all because of racism and Islamophobia and are part of the on-going War of Education and culture of ignorance. Why should Ahmed be involuntarily forced to give up so much privacy and to, perhaps-potentially, have the thoughtless actions by a few (and many when we look at some responses like these) transform and follow him forever? The “right to be forgotten” is an on-going debate in European nations but largely driven by politicians who wish to “delete from history” their wrongdoings.
Given this, I am so glad President Obama reached out with the way he did:
I felt so much happiness for Ahmed and all of the kids like him who are discouraged and who have so much to contribute to the world.
I hope society treats him better in the future and that other, truly dangerous people do not attack him. I hope one day 9/11 finally ends.
The other really frustrating, yet fully expected, thing is that the school still stands by the decisions they made. Why, oh why, do bureaucracies never apologize and seemingly have a pass to get away with anything.
Dr. Andrew Joseph Pegoda 