Justice

Here's George Takei's Powerful Response to #IStandWithAhmed

September 17th 2015

Actor and activist George Takei has a professed passion for science—much like Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old student who was suspended and arrested on Monday after school officials accused him of making a hoax bomb, which was actually just a homemade clock that the aspiring engineer made the night before. So when Takei heard about what happened to Ahmed at his high school in Irving, Texas, he wanted to reach out to the student.

In a letter that Takei posted on Facebook on Thursday, he addressed Ahmed directly, sharing his own story of growing up in a country that discriminated against him for the color of his skin. Takei is a Japanese American, and in the era that followed the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy, he said that he "was also viewed by others as 'the enemy' and treated as such, simply because I happened to look like the people who had attacked America." Takei spent four years of his life living in prison camps.


Many believe that Ahmed was profiled by police and school officials when he was arrested this week, targeted based on his Muslim background and distinctly Muslim name. When he was taken into a room to be interrogated by five Irving police officers, one police officer reportedly said "Yup. That’s who I thought it was." Islamophobia has been a recurring issue in Irving, too, as ATTN: previously reported.

"Like you, I was just a kid trying to find his place in the world," Takei wrote of his own experience. "I loved my country, and I looked forward to all the opportunities and challenges ahead. But my childhood was interrupted by fear and ignorance."

"When the authorities came for you because they believed you had built a bomb, I was reminded, in a way, of when the army came for us. They ordered us out of our home believing we were suspicious people because of our names, our faces, our ancestry. I spent my childhood in an internment camp because of that fear and ignorance."

Takei went on to offer Ahmed words of support, emphasizing the importance of "keeping on, with dignity and fortitude." Just as the actor kept on and found success and fulfillment in spite of the prejudiced circumstances of his childhood, he encouraged the talented inventor to do the same.

"While certain school officials and police officers may have shown you the worst side of our nation, I understand many others have since shown you the best side," Takei wrote. "I was touched to hear you say that we all have to be true to ourselves."


"Ahmed, you are now part of the story of America, and many will learn from your fine example. I see great things ahead for you," he concluded.

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