--- title: Richard Dawkins Called Out Ahmed Mohamed Over Clock 'Hoax' description: Richard Dawkins criticized the boy's use the word "invention" to describe his clock canonical: https://time.com/4042393/richard-dawkins-ahmed-mohamed-clock/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-21T13:05:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:56.627Z article:section: Politics og:title: Richard Dawkins Did Not Stand With Ahmed the Clockmaker og:description: Suggested his controversial timepiece was a 'hoax' og:url: https://time.com/4042393/richard-dawkins-ahmed-mohamed-clock/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Richard Dawkins Did Not Stand With Ahmed the Clockmaker twitter:description: Suggested his controversial timepiece was a 'hoax' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Richard Dawkins Did Not Stand With Ahmed the Clockmaker ## Video: Ahmed Mohamed Isn't Going Back To Public School [Watch (HLS stream): Ahmed Mohamed Isn't Going Back To Public School](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IeazAfe2.m3u8) (1:05)  _Published 2015-09-18. The high school student in Texas who was accused of bringing a bomb into his school when he instead had a clock is switching schools._ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Sep 21, 2015 1:05 PM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Sep 21, 2015 1:05 PM UTC Since 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed’s arrest for bringing a homemade clock to school that administrators mistook for a bomb, there has been an outpouring of support for the teen. President Barack Obama invited him to the White House, as did Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The folks at Twitter asked him if he’d like to intern with them. But Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and noted writer, scholar and contrarian, found something in Ahmed’s story to take issue with — the use of the word “invention” to describe Mohamed’s work. Dawkins went so far as to suggest that describing his clock as such was “fraud” and a “hoax.” > [](https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/645533513882726400) > [](https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/645528895912046592) Dawkins faced intense backlash for his remarks and repeatedly noted that he believes the teen’s arrest was wrong. > [](https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/645546066306277376) > [](https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/645573012943728640) He later apologized and retweeted the President’s White House invitation. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4042393/richard-dawkins-ahmed-mohamed-clock/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4042393/richard-dawkins-ahmed-mohamed-clock/"},"headline":"Richard Dawkins Did Not Stand With Ahmed the Clockmaker","datePublished":"2015-09-21T13:05:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:05:56.627Z","description":"Richard Dawkins criticized the boy's use the word \"invention\" to describe his clock but later apologized","url":"https://time.com/4042393/richard-dawkins-ahmed-mohamed-clock/","keywords":["Newsfeed"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4042393/richard-dawkins-ahmed-mohamed-clock/","name":"Richard Dawkins Did Not Stand With Ahmed the Clockmaker"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Ahmed Mohamed Isn't Going Back To Public School","description":"The high school student in Texas who was accused of bringing a bomb into his school when he instead had a clock is switching schools.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/IeazAfe2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-18T14:30:01.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IeazAfe2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4042393/richard-dawkins-ahmed-mohamed-clock/","duration":"PT1M5S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4042393/richard-dawkins-ahmed-mohamed-clock/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```