guardian | The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins found himself at the
centre of controversy on Sunday when he questioned the motives of Ahmed
Mohamed, the 14-year-old boy who was arrested and detained in Texas when a teacher thought a clock he had made was a bomb.
Dawkins did not dispute that Mohamed should not have been arrested,
but questioned whether the boy had truly “invented” the clock, as has
been reported.
Dawkins, the author of books including the groundbreaking The Selfish
Gene, the bestselling The God Delusion and the memoir A Sense of
Wonder, is a leading critic of religious belief and an advocate for rational thought.
On Sunday, the emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford said he was simply looking for the truth of the Texas schoolboy’s story.
In a tweet, the scientist linked to a YouTube video entitled Ahmed Mohammed [sic] Clock is a FRAUD, in which user Thomas Talbot alleges Mohamed’s clock “is in fact not an invention. The ‘clock’ is a commercial bedside alarm clock removed from its casing”.
Dawkins eventually retreated. He devoted tweets to questioning police
motives and tweeted a reference to the new leader of Britain’s
opposition Labour party: “Sorry if I go a bit over the top in my passion
for truth. Not just over a boy’s alleged ‘invention’ but also media
lies about J[eremy] Corbyn.”
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