'Clock kid' Ahmed Mohamed is moving to Qatar with his family

Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old “clock kid” who was arrested last month for bringing a home-made clock to school that officials believed was a bomb, will join the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development’s Young Innovators program. He and his family will move next week to Qatar from Texas, where he currently resides with his parents and two sisters.

Friend of the family and founder of the Irving, Texas NAACP chapter Anthony Bond told The Washington Post that the decision was made during the Mohamed family’s recent trip to Washington, D.C., a trip that included a visit with the president.

In a statement published by the Post, the Mohamed family explained that they opted to accept the foundation’s invitation “after careful consideration of all the generous offers received.” Ahmed added that he loves the country’s capital, Doha. “It’s so modern,” he said, adding that on a trip to the city he “saw so many amazing schools there, many of them campuses of famous American universities. The teachers were great. I think I will learn a lot and have fun too.”

A short video posted to Mohamed’s Vine account shows him giddy about being in the city:

Since the troubling incident, which drew national attention for school administrators’ perceived racial profiling of a Muslim student and support for Mohamed, the teen withdrew from his school.

“Qatar is in the Arab world, but it also feels like Texas,” Ahmed’s sister Eyman told the Post. “It’s like Texas in Qatar.”

Danielle Wiener-Bronner is a news reporter.