US has been vilifying Muslims for very long time: American author

American author and radio host Stephen Lendman says Muslims have been vilified in the United States for a very long time, but after the September 11, 2001 attacks America officially declared war on Islam.

Lendman made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Thursday while commenting on the incident of Ahmed Mohamed, the American Muslim boy from Texas who was arrested and handcuffed for taking a homemade clock to school.

“Young schoolboy Ahmed Mohamed brought a clock that he made in a school in Texas, and he was accused of bringing a bomb, a terrible incident that just abused him and his rights terribly,” Lendman said.

“This is what goes on in America. Ordinary Muslim children or adults are viciously assailed or assaulted or vilified, because America declared war on Islam officially after 9/11,” he stated.

“But Muslims have been mistreated in America for a very very long time,” he added.

“As a young boy going to the movies in the 1040s, I remember films where Muslims were bad guys, and other people were good guys. Well at seven or eight or nine years old I didn’t know that this was plot,” the analyst noted.

Mohamed, who is the son of a Muslim immigrant from Sudan, was arrested on September 14 after his clock was inexplicably mistaken for a bomb by a teacher at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas. He was suspended for three days, though not charged.

His arrest highlights how minorities and Muslims suffer from racism and Islamaphobia in America, observers say.

According to a report, Mohamed has decided to leave the United States and move to Qatar with his family to continue his education there.

Mohamed, 14, has accepted a scholarship from the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, his family said in a press release on Tuesday.

On Monday, Mohamed met with US President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington. After his detention, Obama invited him to bring his clock to the White House.

In addition to being invited to the White House, Mohamed received an outpouring of support from scientists, politicians and celebrities.

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