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#Halfabomb Explodes on Twitter After Think Tank Calls Boy’s Clock a Threat

Social media users responded to the comments from the Center for Security Policy with mockery — some providing their own examples of what else could be construed as #halfabomb.

Rubina Madan Fillion, Lee Fang

September 18 2015, 2:23 p.m. ET

Image #: 39457846 epa04935267 An undated handout photo provided on 17 September 2015 by the City of Irving, Texas, shows the clock that Ahmed Mohamed had made and took to school in Irving, Texas, USA. Ahmed wanted to show a homemade clock he had made to his engineering teacher at high school in Irving, a Dallas suburb, on 14 September. But the device alarmed officials, who believed it was a bomb. The device was confiscated by a teacher and Ahmed was summoned to a school office to explain. He was then suspended from school, walked out in handcuffs and taken to a juvenile detention centre and fingerprinted, according to the Dallas Morning News. US President Barack Obama on 16 September showed support for the 14-year-old Texas high school student, tweeting '"Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House?" EPA/CITY OF IRVING /LANDOV Photo: City of Irving/EPA /Landov

After an outpouring of sympathy for Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old Muslim high school student arrested on Monday for bringing his homemade clock to school, a neoconservative think tank funded by major defense contractors tried to justify the actions of local police and school officials, calling what the boy built “half a bomb.”

Following our story about the Center for Security Policy’s comments, social media users responded with mockery — some providing their own examples of what else could be construed as #halfabomb.

Caption: The clock that Ahmed Mohamed made.