If Ahmed Mohamed had any other name — well a name that didn’t sound Muslim — the “clock incident” never would have happened. Ahmed was just a bright kid who made a clock, a 14-year-old who wanted to impress his teacher, but he was profiled because he’s Muslim. And muslims are terrorists. It’s just a fact, right?

For anyone who has yet to hear of this incident, Ahmed Mohamed, a freshman at a Texas high school, made a digital clock at home and took it to school because he wanted to impress his teacher. He was met with a very different response. His engineering teacher told him it was “really nice,” but he would “advise him not to show it to any other teachers.”

So Ahmed kept it in his backpack, until it went off in his english class. Ahmed brought his invention up to show her after the teacher complained. “She was like, it looks like a bomb,” he said. “I told her, ‘It doesn’t look like a bomb to me.’”

The teacher kept the clock. When the principal and a police officer pulled Ahmed out of sixth period, he suspected he wouldn’t get it back. They led Ahmed into a room where four other police officers waited. He said an officer he’d never seen before leaned back in his chair and remarked, “Yup. That’s who I thought it was.” And then he was arrested. He was suspended from school. The school never evacuated for a bomb threat. A bomb squad was never called. The alleged “bomb” was never removed from school grounds during the long interrogation. This incident was never about a bomb threat. It was simply a veil allowing for officials to ridicule a kid because of his religion and race. “I felt like I was a criminal, I felt like I was a terrorist,” he said in an interview. “I felt like all the names I was called. In middle school I was called a terrorist, called a bomb maker, just because of my race and religion.”

This incident was met with the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed which was soon supported by some of the most influential individuals in America including President Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg. But despite this support, there is a larger issue at play. These happenings illustrate the overwhelming amount of islamophobia in this country and the obvious corruption in the American justice system. If you’re black you’re a thug, Muslim you’re a terrorist, Hispanic you’re illegal, but if you’re white you’re innocent — and if you aren’t then it’s because you’re lonely and mentally unstable. Yes, it seems Ahmed was arrested simply for inventing while Muslim. And while the police department that arrested him has dropped charges, that department has not been reprimanded for their, to put it simply, illegal behavior. Our justice system is prejudiced and made to further the systematic power structure this nation was built on. Unless white, Americans are forced to represent their entire race, religion or ethnicity.  Unless white, they are expected to constantly worry about being profiled. Ahmed has taken this sad reality and embraced it.

The kid is 14. And he has taken this experience and publicity and created an outlet on which to speak about the oppression he experiences and represent his religion and race well. As disappointing as it is that he is forced to represent his entire religion, he has done so gracefully and is quickly introducing a nationwide discussion on race, religion and incarceration, and rightly so.

We encourage you all to take part in this discussion and be a part of the change.

Join us as we stand with Ahmed, and everyone he represents.