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IRVING, Texas - Ahmed Mohamed, the Muslim teenager who made headlines last year when he was suspended for bringing a homemade clock to school in Irving, returned to the United States Monday afternoon.
“Ahmed and his family have missed his grandmother, his aunts, uncles, cousins and friends here in Irving and across North Texas very much,” Aldean Mohamed said. “Ahmed and his nuclear family miss America and their whole family here in America very much.”
Ahmed said Facebook, MIT and NASA have contacted him through social media, asking him to visit while he’s in the U.S. during the summer.
The 14-year-old said he's happy to be back home, and seeing his friends and family is first priority. He's been going to school in Qatar and says there's a 50/50 chance he'll finish high school in the U.S., but says he definitely wants to go to college here. He says he's interested in coding, engineering and technology.
"I've matured more. It's normal to mature but I've matured way more since I got a little bit of publicity, and I'm happy for it,” Ahmed said.
"It's beautiful to be here in USA,” said Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed. “It is our home and it is our country and we love it. As you see, if there is something wrong, America will stand for it and that is what happened. Something was happening to my son. Everybody has a heart, has children, Something is wrong, so they stood for it.”
The 14-year-old was arrested in September after Irving MacArthur High School faculty mistakenly thought the homemade digital clock he’d taken school was a bomb.
The subsequent fallout made international headlines. Ahmed was invited to visit the White House, participated in Google’s science fair and included in Time's "Most Influential Teens of 2015" list. He and his immediately family ended up moving to Qatar, where a foundation offered to pay for his education.
Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne at the time said she stood behind the actions of her police department, which did drop the hoax bomb charges after determining the teen meant no harm.
Ahmed’s family is still suing Irving ISD and Irving Police for $15 million in damages, according to Mohamed's uncle.
The Department of Justice is investigating Irving ISD after dozens of Democratic members of Congress called for an investigation.
Ahmed is now at the family's Irving home before he will travel across the states.