Bill Maher Defends Arrest Of Ahmed Mohamed Because His Clock ‘Looks Exactly Like A Bomb’

By now you’ve most likely heard about Ahmed Mohamed and his clock. Ahmed, a 14-year-old, brought a homemade clock to his high school in Irving, Texas, and ended up in handcuffs when school personnel thought the clock was a bomb. Not long after news broke of the clock incident, Ahmed received an outpouring of support online, and the hashtag iStandWithAhmed started trending on Twitter.

Everyone from Flavor Flav to President Obama has had something to say about the clock incident, including political pundit Bill Maher, who’s known for his often controversial remarks. While many people claim “Islamophobia” was the true motivation behind Ahmed’s arrest, citing examples of other students engaging in clock-building projects without punishment for doing so, Maher says he supports Ahmed’s teachers, adding there’s a “lack of perspective” about the situation.

“So the teacher’s just supposed to see something that looks like a bomb and be, ‘Oh, wait, this might just be my white privilege talking,'” Bill said.

During the September 18 airing of his show, Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher spoke with panelists George Pataki, Mark Cuban, Jorge Ramos, and Chris Matthews about Ahmed Mohamed and his homemade clock project. Bill stated school personnel probably thought the clock was a bomb because the clock looked “exactly like a bomb.”

“People at the school thought it might be a bomb, because it looks exactly like a f**king bomb. It’s not the color of his skin. Excuse me, somebody look me in the eye right here and tell me. Over the last 30 years, if so many young Muslim men … and he’s young, 14, but that’s not like it’s never happened before, hasn’t blown a lot of s—t up around the world. And this guy, this kid deserves an apology, because he wasn’t one of them… For the last 30 years, it’s been the one culture that has been blowing s**t up over and over again.”

According to Hollywood Life, most of the panelists seemed to agree with Bill’s opinion on Ahmed getting arrested because his homemade clock looked like a bomb to school officials. For Hollywood Life, Samantha Wilson writes, “Bill’s statements only further push the argument that he was arrested because of his Muslim faith and his appearance, no?”

While Maher agrees with the decision to arrest Ahmed Mohamed over his homemade clock, he also believes Ahmed deserves an apology from his school.

“Look, this kid deserves an apology — no doubt about it. They were wrong. But can we have a little perspective about this? Did the teacher really do a wrong thing?”

Ultimately, Maher said the clock incident is all about perspective. “What if it had been a bomb? The lack of perspective on this is astounding,” he said.

Bill also brought up an incident that happened earlier this year in Garland, Texas, in which an exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad was fired upon.

“Only 25 miles away, somebody did try to kill people,” Bill said, referring to that incident.

Back to Ahmed and his clock, Maher said, “He’s a great kid. No one’s doubting that. I’m just asking about perspective.”

What do you think about Bill Maher’s opinion about Ahmed Mohamed and his homemade clock?

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]