Richard Dawkins has sparked a wave of criticism after appearing to draw a tenuous link between Ahmed Mohamed, the Texas Muslim teenager whose homemade clock was mistaken for a bomb, and a child forced by Islamic State militants to behead his victim.



The criticism came after the leading scientist reacted to news that Mohamed’s family’s was demanding $15m in damages and an apology after the 14-year-old was arrested in September, when his homemade clock was taken for a bomb.

‘“But he’s only a kid.’ Yes, a ‘kid’ old enough to sue for $15m those whom he hoaxed,” tweeted Dawkins.

In the tweet he linked to an International Business Times report on a video posted to YouTube that appears to show a child of about 10 being forced by Isis fighters to decapitate a Syrian regime army officer.

Referring to the video he asked: “And how old is this ‘kid’?”



"But he's only a kid." Yes, a "kid" old enough to sue for $15M those whom he hoaxed. And how old is this "kid"? https://t.co/kjzxGDs5Az — Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) November 24, 2015

The tweet was met with a swift response which forced Dawkins to deny comparing – in the words of another Twitter user – a “child trained to kill people to the kid that made the shitty clock”.

“No. Just fed up with people saying of the click [sic] hoax boy, ‘He’s only a kid’, as though that means he can’t be criticised.”



In subsequent responses, he clarified that the two were “comparable in NO other respect than that they are both young”, and that he “[didn’t] hate Muslims”.

@boringfileclerk I don't hate Muslims. I hate people who behead, stone, lash, and throw people off high buildings. Most Muslims don't. — Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) November 24, 2015

@duggan_paul Oh for heaven's sake, it's nothing to do with their being Muslims. The link is that both are YOUNG, yet not blameless. — Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) November 24, 2015

Dawkins has expressed scepticism about Mohamed’s “motives” before, tweeting in September that his questioning of “a boy’s alleged ‘invention’” was part and parcel of his “passion for truth”.

He reiterated this complaint on Wednesday, conceding that though it was a clock, not a bomb, Mohamed “didn’t make it. He took it out of its case and pretended he had made it”.

@Sean_PFerris @CraiggyPops If it was re-assembly you'd be right. It wasn't he took it out of its case and did nothing else to it at all. — Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) November 24, 2015

@lyonsnyc No. He took a clock out of its case and put it in a box. He didn't enhance it in any way. What motive could he possibly have had? — Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) November 24, 2015

But he denied holding any “special animosity” against the teenager: “No, I just want to alert the gullible fools who fell for his scam. And STILL fall for it even after his $15M demand!”

He expanded to another user that “kids can do the indefensible”.

Dawkins appeared to grow frustrated by the repeated requests for clarification, likening it to the time his remarks about Mein Kampf were misinterpreted by “numpties”.

It's exactly like when I said I don't have to read Mein Kampf to condemn Nazism. The numpties thought I was accusing Muslims of being Nazis! — Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) November 24, 2015

“I suppose I should by now have got the measure of the IQ to be found on Twitter,” he replied to another user.

At time of publication, Dawkins was still tweeting, reiterating he “was NOT comparing the clock hoax to cutting someone’s head off” and retweeting others’ praise of his book.