It does feel a bit like the raising of this material provides people with a way of legitimizing the grievances of the Muslim community. Whether he built the clock or not, police arrested him over its similarity to a bomb, yet didn't evacuate the school as if it were one. Clearly the point isn't whether this kid made the clock or not.
Maybe it was just a propaganda stunt to discourage domestic terrorism and push the learn to code movement? Maybe this kid doesn't even exist.