#IStandWithAhmed

About

#IStandWithAhmed is a hashtag on Twitter used by supporters of 14-year-old high school student Ahmed Mohamed of Irving, Texas, who became a subject of national interest after he was arrested for bringing a self-assembled digital clock to school in September 2015. Many have speculated that the incident is an example of Islamophobia and racial profiling.

Origin

On September 14th, 2015, 9th grader Ahmed Mohamed brought his homemade electronic clock to school to show to his engineering teacher, who advised Mohamed not to show other instructors the device. After the clock's alarm went off during English class. Mohamed was sent to the school's office where he was arrested by several police officers for "possession of a hoax bomb."

That evening, Twitter user Amneh Jafari posted a tweet^[5] speculating that Mohamed would've been "labeled as a genius" if he had a different name along with the hashtags "#doublestandards" and "#IStandWithAhmed" (shown below). In the next 72 hours, the tweet gained over 1,000 retweets and 690 favorites.

Spread

Within 24 hours of his arrest, an outpouring of support for Mohamed on Twitter caused the #IStandWithAhmed^[3] hashtag to begin trending worldwide.

On September 16th, Mohamed’s two older sisters created the @IStandWithAhmed^[1] Twitter feed. In 48 hours, the account accumulated upwards of 93,000 followers.

Also on September 16th, Twitter's official @TwitterData^[4] feed released a chart visualizing the hashtag's rapid growth (shown below).

On September 18th, USA Today^[6] published an interview with Amneh Jafari, who explained why she created the hashtag and how she felt about its success on Twitter.

""It's about all the other kids that have been discriminated against in this country – no matter what religion, race. I feel like it also represents them, as well."

According to the Twitter analytics site Topsy,^[2] #IStandWithAhmed was tweeted over 1.2 million times within the first 72 hours.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References