Where is the best place in the world to live for a Muslim? The answer, of course, will always be “It depends.” It depends on whether we are referring to the Muslim family of a 14-year-old boy who got arrested in Texas for bringing a homemade clock to class. Where’s the best place for them to live? Not Texas, apparently.
At least not according to the father of Ahmed Mohamed, the MacArthur High School student whom authorities detained in Irving, Texas, for bringing to school a clock that Ahmed had reassembled in a pencil case. Suspicious that it might be a bomb, police removed Ahmed from school, attracting nationwide attention and transforming the kid into a symbol of perceived anti-Muslim bias.
As a result, Ahmed got to meet President Obama at the White House’s Astronomy Night, but less than 24 hours later, the boy’s father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, announced in an interview with the Dallas Morning News, “We are going to move to a place where my kids can study and learn, and all of them being accepted by that country.”
That country is Qatar, where Ahmed will study at the Qatar Foundation’s huge government-funded Education City. “I was really impressed with everything that Qatar Foundation has to offer and the campuses are really cool,” Ahmed explained.
I’m sure that Qatar’s facilities will offer Ahmed a great education, but Ahmed’s father implied that the family’s move is about giving his children a better life, that they will be better accepted in a rich Arab nation.
He could not be more wrong. Neither can Ahmed’s 18-year-old sister, Eyman Mohamed, when she said that Qatar is “basically like America.” Perhaps she’s unaware that in Qatar:
- Testimony by a female in court is sometimes worth half a man’s.
- Statues state that a woman must obey her husband.
- Adultery can earn you 100 lashes.
- Stoning is a legal punishment for a variety of crimes.
- The death penalty applies to homosexual acts.
- Muslims (but only Muslims) are forbidden from drinking alcohol.
- Speaking out against the emir can land you in jail for 15 years.
- The laws are written in ways that encourage modern-day slavery.
Just like America, right?
Yes, Ahmed was taken into custody for dubious reasons, but it’s just as important to remember that the incident sparked outrage across the country. That says as much about the United States as Qatar’s human-rights record says about that nation.
