Father of Muslim 'clock boy' files defamation lawsuit

The father of Ahmed Mohamed, the teenager arrested in the US last year when he brought a homemade clock to school, has filed a defamation suit against media outlets and commentators for fanning Islamophobia.
Mohamed Mohamed filed the lawsuit against multiple media outlets and conservative political commentators, including TV host Glenn Beck and his television network, TheBlaze. He also sued FOX Television Stations and Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne.
Mohamed sued on behalf of himself and his 14-year-old son, arguing that commentators and media outlets were responsible for libelous statements after his son's arrest in 2015, The Dallas Morning News reported.

"The Mohamed family are peaceful Muslims who have been falsely accused of being terrorists and engaging in a jihad," the suit states.
"The correction must also be made that the arrest and suspension of Ahmed Mohamed was not a stunt and it was not pre-planned, staged or engineered by anyone, including (his father)," it said.
The lawsuit comes a month after the Mohamed family announced a federal lawsuit against Texas' city of Irving and its school district, alleging that the boy's rights were violated after Irving police mistook his homemade clock for a bomb.

The boy had met President Barack Obama in last October.

Mohamed Mohamed took issue with comments Beck made during a show that aired on TheBlaze. The suit says the host offered the theory that the clock bomb story was part of a larger conspiracy, possibly to "turn Texas blue" politically.
Jim Hanson of the Center for Security Policy, who was also sued, agreed with him, according to the suit. "I don't think there's any question that this latest event was a PR stunt," he said, adding that Ahmed Mohamed may have been a "pawn" of his father.
The suit also accuses political commentators Ben Shapiro and Ben Ferguson of making similar libelous statements on FOX channels.

"The public has been misled into believing that the Mohameds are terrorists who plotted to have the Irving police wrongfully arrest a teenage boy for bringing an alarm clock to school. These broadcasts irresponsibly fan the flames of fear and anger toward Muslims and immigrants," the lawsuit added.