IRVING – Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne appeared with TV host Glenn Beck Tuesday to discuss whether 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed intentionally caused a scare at his school as part of a larger Islamist plot.
Jim Hanson of the conservative Center for Security Policy supported Beck's theory about why the teen brought a homemade clock to Irving MacArthur High School. Van Duyne said Ahmed's family should let the school release all information about the incident.
"This is one side of the story," she said, "but the other side of the story is not coming out."
Attorneys advised the family not to sign a release, according to a spokeswoman with the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Beck advanced his theory that the Irving school clock is part of an orchestrated conspiracy of creeping Islamist jihad. He asked Jim Hanson, "Any doubt in your mind that this is really kind of the final throes of weakening us to the point to where we don't ask any questions, to be ready for final confrontation? Total confrontation?"
"No," Hanson replied. He called Ahmed a "pawn" who was put up to it.
Van Duyne questioned why the White House was so quick to applaud the freshman student, and she didn't call his clock a "clock."
"In fact," the mayor said, "I don't even think the picture of the hoax bomb was released before [President Obama] tweeted out, 'Cool clock, kid.'"
The mayor said teachers and police are getting death threats. Irving ISD spokeswoman Leslie Weaver confirmed that some troubling communications have been turned over to police. A police spokesman said the department is also receiving some comments that are strong enough to document.
The City of Irving released a statement Tuesday that does not seem to support the theory that Ahmed's clock is part of a slowly-ticking conspiracy. The statement says the "investigation determined the student apparently did not intend to cause alarm."
On Tuesday afternoon, Ahmed's parents withdrew him from the Irving ISD.
- TRANSCRIPT: Van Duyne on the Glenn Beck Program
- MORE: Stories about Ahmed Mohamed
