The decision for Ahmed Mohamed and his family to move to Qatar is no surprise considering the lingering anti-Muslim sentiment that leads many American Muslims to feel "under siege", according to a spokesperson for a national Muslim-American group.
Ahmed, a 14-year-old Muslim boy whose homemade clock was mistaken for a bomb by his teacher, has accepted a scholarship and will move to Qatar with his family.
Ahmed was detained over a homemade clock he brought to school last month and the case went viral on social media.
Many have alleged that he was discriminated against because of his name and religious background, however officials in Irving, Texas maintain the teacher made the right decision, acting out of concern for students.
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said there had been a signficant increase in the level of Islamophobia in the US. He highlighted the GOP frontrunners, Donald Trump and Ben Carson, and their Islamophobic comments to illustrate his point.
"The Muslim-American community feels under siege by all this," Hooper said.
The Qatar Foundation has given Mohamed a full scholarship for both his secondary and undergraduate education, and have enrolled him in the "Young Innovators" program.
"Our family have been overwhelmed by the many offers of support we have received since the unfortunate incident of Ahmed's arrest," the Mohamed family said in a press release.
"From the White House to Sudan, to Mecca, we have been welcomed by a variety of individuals, businesses and educational institutions."
Mohammed's family will also be moving from Texas to Qatar to enable him to go to the school.
"Qatar was a cool place to visit. I loved the city of Doha because it's so modern. I saw so many amazing schools there, many of them campuses of famous American universities," said Ahmed in the news release.
"The teachers were great. I think I will learn a lot and have fun too."'
Since his arrest on 14 September and the social media outrage, sparking the hashtag #StandWithAhmed, he has visited the White House and met Obama, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
