Dear Barack: Why Ahmed, But Not Hallel

On June 30, 2016, 13-year-old Hallel Ariel was stabbed to death in her bed by a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist. Her only crime was sleeping.

-Ricochet: On September 14, 2015, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, was arrested at MacArthur High School in Irving, TX, for bringing an alleged fake bomb to school. He claimed that it was a pencil box filled with reassembled clock parts. His teacher thought it resembled a bomb and called the authorities. This led to his eventual suspension from his high school.

Enter the national mainstream media. The story quickly went viral, and led to another soul-searching discussion of how Islamophobic America is (“See Something, Say Something” be damned). #IStandWithAhmed became a worldwide trending hashtag, and tech companies flooded Ahmed with offers of jobs, internships, tours, and other gifts.

Then, two days later, at 12:58 PM, Ahmed got a Willy Wonka golden ticket:

(Please note that his tweet got an monumental 417,171 retweets.)  MORE