Richard Dawkins' dubious Twitter form underwent a further mutation on Sunday, with the author claiming Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old Texas teenager arrested last week on suspicion of building a bomb, was guilty of "fraud."
The 74-year-old evolutionary biologist and noted atheist sent out a slew of tweets over the weekend chastising the ninth-grader for not even building a clock. Some observers have dissected the photo police handed out of the device Mohamed built, claiming he just shuffled around clock parts inside a pencil case.
Dawkins opened with these on Sunday morning:
If this is true, what was his motive? Whether or not he wanted the police to arrest him, they shouldn’t have done so https://t.co/LtOFAAmVxK
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) September 20, 2015
. @smenor @MhaskarChief He didn't only claim to have built it. He claimed, on Youtube, that it was his INVENTION.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) September 20, 2015
Rebuttals followed:
@RichardDawkins @smenor @MhaskarChief What has this got to do with evolutionary biology or atheism? Why are you so annoyed about this kid?
— Gut ohne Gott (@I_Love_Atheism) September 20, 2015
.@RichardDawkins Richard, you're missing the point a little here.
— Bang the Bore (@bangthebore) September 20, 2015
@RichardDawkins the key words in all of this are 'kid' and 'handcuffs' throw in open carry in Texas too, if you want....
— Jimmy the Carpenter (@diggerjimmy) September 20, 2015
Then this:
@HarryStopes I don't know. Possibly wanted to be arrested? Police played into his hands? Anyway, now invited to White House, crowdfunded etc
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) September 20, 2015
More rebuttals:
@letuckshop @RichardDawkins @I_Love_Atheism He's only 14, not some Machiavellian master-mind, what the hell's wrong with you?
— Dave Street (@StreetBloke76) September 20, 2015
@RichardDawkins @I_Love_Atheism fraud? That's a very emotive word to apply to a young child who is enthusiastic about engineering.
— Matt Bradley (@MattBluefoot) September 20, 2015
@RichardDawkins he's an enthusiastic fourteen year and you, a grown man and public figure, are trashing him on the internet for "fraud"
— Jon (@RowettBrew) September 20, 2015
@RichardDawkins for a famed scientist you are really fucking stupid
— reptoid (@mrreptoid) September 20, 2015
@RichardDawkins remember when you were a scientist instead of a twitter crank...those were better days
— Physically, I'll (@ScottyTonga) September 20, 2015
Yet Dawkins' ire remained fixed on Ahmed's claim he invented the device... and not the fact that a teenager was arrested for exploring rudimentary electronics.
If the reassembled components did something more than the original clock, that’s creative. If not, it looks like hoax http://t.co/bBcaWoJpbd
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) September 20, 2015
It's fine to disassemble & reassemble a clock. http://t.co/bBcaWoJpbd But don't claim it's your INVENTION. https://t.co/fZFF59vV0n
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) September 20, 2015
Then a slight evolution in Dawkins' thinking:
OK, fraudulent claiming of an "invention" is not heinous. And he certainly should not have been arrested by the police.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) September 20, 2015
Then this climbdown:
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 Corbyn.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) September 20, 2015
But Twitter was not having it:
Richard Dawkins now one of the consipracy theorists who think a kid planned to get arrested so he could be famous https://t.co/7lhST0K1kL
— Physically, I'll (@ScottyTonga) September 20, 2015
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