Bulletin for the Study of Religion, Vol 44, No 4 (2015)

Who Believed There Was A Bomb and When Did They Believe It? What Ahmed Mohamed’s Clock Says About Belief and Moral Panic

Joseph P. Laycock
Issued Date: 15 Jan 2016

Abstract


Thousands have expressed outrage over the treatment of Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old Muslim student at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, who was arrested after trying to show his English teacher an electronic clock he had constructed. The principal as well as mayor Beth Van Duyne (who has previously appeared on Glenn Beck to discuss her fears over sharia law) have defended the actions of the school and police. But critics have speculated that neither the school nor police ever actually believed Mohamed had a bomb and that this was really a case of bigots humiliating a Muslim student under the pretense of public safety. This critique raises important questions about the mechanisms of moral panic. Is it necessary to believe in a threat to take action against it?

Download Media

PDF (Price: £17.50 )

DOI: 10.1558/bsor.v44i4.28907

References


Bromley, David G. 1991. “Satanism: The New Cult Scare.” In The Satanism Scare edited by James T. Richardson, Joel Best, and David G. Bromley, 49–74. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine De Gruyter.



BSSanders. 2015. “They Didn’t Think He Had a Bomb” Daily Kos, September 17. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/17/1422329/--They-didn-t-think-he-had-a-bomb#.



Caillois, Roger. 1961. Man, Play, and Games. New York: Free Press of Glencoe.



Campbell, Andy. 2015. “I’m the Person Who Built a Clock and Got in Trouble For It,” Huffington Post, September 16. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/im-the-person-who-built-a-clock-and-got-in-trouble-for-it_55f9f6e6e4b08820d91751d4.



Cohen, Stanley. 2002. Folk Devils and Moral Panic. New York: Routledge.



Cushing, Tim. 2015. “Here’s the Ridiculous Texas Law that Allows Law Enforcement to Pretend a Digital Clock Is a Hoax Bomb.” TechDirt.com, September 17. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150916/18421332279/how-texas-law-enforcement-can-legally-turn-digital-clock-into-criminal-charges.shtml.



Edelman, Adam. 2013. “Boy, 7, suspended for throwing imaginary grenade,” New York Daily News, February 5. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/boy-7-suspended-throwing-imaginary-grenade-article-1.1256200.



Fernandez, Manny, and Christine Hauser. 2015. “As Jade Helm 15 Military Exercise Begins, Texans Keep Watch ‘Just in Case.’” New York Times, July 15. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/us/in-texas-a-military-exercise-is-met-by-some-with-suspicion.html?_r=0



Fernandez, Manny, and Christine Hauser. 2015. “Handcuffed for Making Clock, Ahmed Mohamed, 14, Wins Time with Obama.” New York Times, September 16. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/us/texas-student-is-under-police-investigation-for-building-a-clock.html?_r=2.



Ferner, Matt. 2015. “Irving Mayor Defends School And Cops, Doesn’t Apologize for Arrest of Muslim Teen Over Clock.” HuffingtonPost, September 17. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/irving-mayor-defends-school-and-cops_55f9dbc0e4b08820d917310e.



FoxNews. 2013. “Boy, 7, Suspended for Shaping Pastry into Gun, Dad Says,” FoxNews.com, March 20. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/05/boy-7-suspended-for-shaping-pastry-into-gun-dad-says/.



Frankfurter, David. 2006. Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.



Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.



Gellar, Pamela. 2015. “Ahmed Mohamed and the Islamophobia Clock,” Breitbart.com, September 17. http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/17/ahmed-mohamed-and-the-islamophobia-clock/.



HG.org. 2015. “What Are the Consequences for Making Bomb Threats?” http://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=31836.



Huxley, Aldous. 2009 The Devils of Loudun. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.



Labbe, J. R. 2002. “Zero-Tolerance Policies Demonstrate the Death of Common Sense in Schools,” The Day, March 22, A7.



Mandelbaum, David G. 1966. “Transcendental and Pragmatic Aspects of Religion,” American Anthropologist 68: 1174–191. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/aa.1966.68.5.02a00050



Medway, Gareth. J. 2001. Lure of the Sinister: The Unnatural History of Satanism. New York: New York University Press.



Nathan, Debbie, and Michael Snedecker. 1995. Satan’s Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern Witch Hunt. New York: Basic Books.



Orwell, George. 1961. 1984. New York: Signet Classic.



Pengelly, Martin. “Richard Dawkins questions Ahmed Mohamed’s ‘motives’ and sparks backlash.” The Guardian, September 20. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/20/richard-dawkins-questions-ahmed-mohamed-motive-backlash.



Pike, Sarah M. 2009. “Dark Teens and Born-Again Martyrs: Captivity Narratives After Columbine.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 77: 647–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfp038.



Roberts, Christine. 2013. “Girl’s Bubble Gun Center of ‘Terrorist Threat’ at Pennsylvania’s Mount Carmel Area Elementary School.” Nydailynews, January 20. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pennsylvania-5-year-old-suspended-bubble-gun-terrorist-threat-article-1.1243635.



Selk, Avi. 2015. “Ahmed Mohamed Swept Up, ‘Hoax Bomb’ Charges Swept Away as Irving Teen’s Story Floods Social Media,” Dallas Morning News, September 15. http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece.



Selk, Avi. 2015. “Letters demand $15 million, say Irving officials worked to smear Ahmed Mohamed after clock arrest,” Dallas Morning News, November 23. http://irvingblog.dallasnews.com/2015/11/letter-demands-5-million-and-an-apology-for-ahmeds-treatment-over-clock.html.



Wilonsky, Robert. 2015. “Feds investigating Ahmed Mohamed’s ex school district over discrimination, harassment charges,” Dallas Morning News, December 4. http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2015/12/u-s-attorney-general-justice-department-investigating-treatment-of-ahmed-mohamed.html.



Wilson, Bryan. 1982. Religion in Sociological Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.





Equinox Publishing Ltd - 415 The Workstation 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0)114 221-0285 - Email: [email protected]

Privacy Policy