After Ahmed Mohamed, known as the “Clock Boy,” and his father brought a defamation suit that gained national attention following the Muslim Texas student’s arrest and suspension for bringing a hoax bomb to school, free speech advocates recently won a victory in court.

“[Mohamed Mohamed his and son] apparently will have to pay the attorneys’ fees, court costs and ‘other expenses’ of at least one of the personalities they sued when the youngster brought what looked like a bomb to his public school and was suspended,” WND reported.

Victory for free speech

The news was first publicized via a tweet made by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who announced a ruling issued by a judge presiding over the lawsuit that was waged by Mohamed Mohamed against him, the Blaze, Glenn Beck, the Center for Security Policy, Jim Hanson, Fox News and Ben Ferguson – just to name a few.

“Clock Boy case falls apart like a pencil box filled with clock parts,” Shapiro posted to his Twitter followers.

Claiming that the boy was the victim of religious profiling, the Muslim family sued for “defamation,” which started a media firestorm from coast to coast.

“[Ahmed Mohamed] brought a hoax clock bomb to his Irving, Texas, school in late 2015 and caused a scare,” WND’s Bob Unruh recounted. “He was arrested and suspended, but then turned the incident around, gaining favors from the famous, including an invitation to the White House from then-President Obama.”

Recent developments in the lawsuit indicated that defamation allegations against the media reporting on the incident were not holding water.

“[T]he judge had dismissed the case against some of the other defendants [several weeks ago], but there was no immediate word at that time on sanctions against the Mohameds, except that the defendants were requesting them,” Unruh continued. “At that time, the judge pressed Mohamed’s lawyer, Fort Worth attorney Susan Hutchison, to provide any facts that would suggest that Hanson and the other defendants had said anything false or defamatory about Mohamed or his son during the television broadcasts.”

No records of such defamatory statements were discovered or provided by the prosecuting attorney.

“After spending a painfully embarrassing 15 minutes flipping through reams of paper, Mohamed’s lawyer was unable to provide any such evidence,” defense attorneys in the suit divulged in a report.

False alarm by Clock Boy

The judge in the case recently released the latest court order, which essentially sinks for the Muslim’s boy’s argument.

“[The motion to dismiss the Mohamed’s case] is granted in its entirety,” the judge stated in the newest court order that was posted by Shapiro. “It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed that all of the plaintiffs’ claims against Shapiro are dismissed with prejudice in their entirety. Plaintiffs shall take nothing from Shapiro. It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed that, in accordance with Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 27.009(1), Shapiro is entitled to recover his attorneys’ fees, courts costs and other expenses in bringing his motion to dismiss and defending against plaintiffs’ claims. Shapiro is ordered to submit evidence of his attorneys fees, court costs and other expenses by affidavit within 14 days.”

It is likely that Shapiro will not be the only journalist who will compensated for the frivolous lawsuit.

“In January, District Judge Maricela Moore held a three-hour hearing on the dismissal requests,” Unruh pointed out. “Since there are multiple defendants, various motions have been submitted. They are seeking dismissal and are expected to seek reimbursements.”

Shapiro saw the victory as confirmation that his constitutional right – to report on news that might be considered politically correct – is still protected in America.

“This is an excellent day for free speech,” Shapiro shared on his website, the Daily Wire. “Using law as warfare is perhaps the most disgusting tactic of politically correct activists across the country, and we couldn’t be more excited to stand up against such frivolous use of our court system.”

American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) and local counsel Pete Rowe, who represents the Center for Security Policy and Jim Hanson, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit because of its alleged frivolous nature.

“The plaintiffs had claimed, according to AFLC, that they were damaged by statements, including those made by Hanson on Beck’s program ‘about the connection between the ‘clock boy’ hoax bomb affair, the attendant media frenzy created in large part by his father Mohamed, civilization jihad, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, (‘CAIR’), The Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group in the United States that promotes civilization jihad,” Unruh explained.

The lawsuit, according to AFLC Senior Counsel David Yerushalmi, should never have been filed in the first place.

“[This case is] a classic Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or ‘SLAPP’ case, and should be dismissed,” Yerushalmi expressed to the judge.

The lawsuit was basically described as an attempt to silence free speech.

“Such cases are filed against individuals and groups that make statements about issues that have drawn the public’s attention,” Unruh pointed out. “The objective is to silence them. It’s also called ‘lawfare’ – the use of American law by activists against their foes.

Yerushalmi, who is also a co-founder of AFLC, maintained that many Islamic Americans frequently use tactics to get the media to work toward its advantage so that any mention of terrorism or jihad becomes moot when connected to Muslims.

AFLC Co-Founder and Senior Counsel Robert Muise said his organization was designed to deter pro-Muslim groups from shutting down free speech.

“AFLC was formed in large measure to take on Islamists like CAIR who use and abuse the legal system with their cynical form of lawfare to undermine our constitutional liberties – notably free speech,” Muise asserted. “We have confronted these lawsuits across the country in federal and state courts and have defeated CAIR and its minions at every turn. When appropriate, we have won sanctions. This lawsuit will be no different.”

Modern-day celebrity

The “Clock Boy” was made into a modern-day celebrity and became the Muslim poster boy for victimization and religious profiling after the incident took place nearly two years ago.

“The youth – after his arrest – held news conferences, was invited by Obama to the White House, bragged about his overseas travels and then alerted reporters when he was returning to the United States,” Unruh recounted. “The Council on American Islamic Relations, which was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror-financing case, got involved in the publicity campaign. Then, Mohamed sued various media companies and personalities for commenting on the incident.”

The Muslim boy soon took his show on the road, banking on sympathy over the incident, as he claimed that “severe psychological trauma” from the school suspension was partly responsible for his family’s decision to move.

However, the trauma from the suspension was not intense enough to prevent Mohamed from embarking on a one-month world tour shortly afterward, which consisted of many notable highlights, including the dozen mentioned by WND that are listed below:

  • Honor by President Obama on social media and an invitation to the White House, where he meets the president Monday on the South Lawn at the astronomy event
  • A meeting with Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, at a science fair
  • Praise by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg
  • Being named the beneficiary of a $20,000 fundraising campaign
  • An invitation by a Canadian astronaut to visit
  • An appearance with Dr. Oz
  • Praise from MIT scientist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein for being “my ideal student”
  • A proclamation by New York City of “Ahmed Day”
  • A visit with Sudanese President Omar al Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide
  • A visit with Turkey’s Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu
  • A trip to the Middle East during which, as the Huffington Post described it, he “hung with Jordan’s Queen Rania”
  • A visit to Mecca as an honored guest of Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

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Copyright American Family News. Reprinted with permission.

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