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Controversial scientist Richard Dawkins has come under fire for suggesting American schoolboy Ahmed Mohamed may have WANTED to be arrested

The noted evolutionary biologist appeared to also attack the 14-year-old for claiming the clock he brought into school was his own invention.

In a series of posts on Twitter, Mr Dawkins questioned whether or not Ahmed should be claiming the clock as his own invention, and suggested it was merely an act of piecing together someone else's work.

Linking to a YouTube video where someone was arguing Ahmed's clock was false, Mr Dawkins said: "If this is true, what was his motive? Whether or not he wanted the police to arrest him, they shouldn’t have done so."

He later added: "Assembling clock from bought components is fine. Taking clock out of its case to make it look as if he built it is not fine. Which is true?"

(Image: Ahmed Mohamed / Twitter)

(Image: Reuters)

After posting his comments, a number of people fired back.

Bangthebore said: "Richard, you're missing the point a little here", while bea_ker added: "You get worse and worse. You are a living refutation of evolution."

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Ahmed was arrested by police last week after his teachers in his school in Irving, Texas, thought a clock he had made and brought into lessons looked like a bomb.

He was handcuffed and grilled by officers and teachers, before being taken to a juvenile detention centre where his fingerprints were taken.

As news of the arrest spread, offers of support came in from numerous top NASA scientists and President Obama as well as thousands of others.

Following his posts that appeared to question Ahmed's motives and creativity, Mr Dawkins later seemed to back track after a number of people hit back at him on the social network.

He said: "OK, fraudulent claiming of an "invention" is not heinous. And he certainly should not have been arrested by the police."

Mr Dawkins later added: "I'm not putting down the child. I'm putting down myself & the rest of us for being fooled. And the police for arresting him for nothing.

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"If the authorities really thought it might be a bomb, why did they not evacuate the building? Casts doubt on their motive for arresting him.

"My mistake. He was arrested on (v implausible) suspicion of a bomb HOAX. Like people at airports arrested for making jokes about bombs."

Ahmed has been invited to Facebook, MIT, Twitter, Google and the White House following the arrest.