Media botches Gracie Mansion bomb story; Mamdani ignores Muslin terrorists!

Something truly awful happened outside Gracie Mansion over the weekend, but don’t expect to get all the facts from Zohran Mamdani. After improvised explosive devices were hurled at protesters by two individuals with Muslim extremist ties, Mamdani didn’t even bother criticizing them by name, instead focusing his attention on right-wing provocateur Jake Lang, who had organized the protest.

Hurt people’s feelings, and you’ll be denounced by name. Attack people on behalf of Muslim extremism, and you’ll barely merit a mention!

Here’s what happened: On Saturday, Lang, a far-right rioter who was previously charged and regrettably pardoned for January 6 related offenses led a protest outside Mamdani’s mayoral residence.

Lang’s protest was against what he describes as the Islamification of New York. There was a roast pig at the protest. Lang is known for pulling stunts like this — he’s previously called for burning the Quran, that sort of thing. Obnoxious, and offensive to peaceful Muslims, though he has the First Amendment right to peacefully protest in the public square.

Lang was meat by counterprotesters, including 19-year-old Ibraham Kayumi and 18-year-old Emir Balat. They are, according to New York Post, fanatics who self-radicalized and traveled to Tukey and Saudia Arabia to learn tactics from ISIS. The explosives that they hurled at Lang’s group are a type of bomb frequently used by ISIS terrorists. Luckily it did not explode, and it’s not clear that it was built correctly and even could have exploded; law enforcement is looking into that. Officers have also apprehended Balat and Kayumi, who admitted that their motivation was insult to their religion.

Let’s be absolutely clear. Every American has the right to mock Islam, or Catholicism, or atheism, or Buddhism, or Mormonism, or the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The First Amendment protests religious expression and anti-religious expression in equal measure. Violence and terrorism are never a permissible response, even to offensive speech and protests.

So one might have expected media coverage of these events to focus on the wrongness of the would-be terorrists rather than the offensiveness of the protests. But you’d be wrong. Aside from the conservative New York Post, attention was generally focused on Lang rather than the assailants.

For instance, this tweet from NBC New York reads: “Multiple arrests made after ‘suspicious devices’ found outside Gracie Mansion, home of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, during anti-Islam rally and counterprotest.”

That makes it sound, of course, like the anti-Islam side made the bombs. No, the pro-Islam side threw the bombs at the anti-Islam side.

Conservative attorney Mike Davis writes on X: “This is the most dishonest reporting we’ve seen in a long time. Two jihadis threw two IEDs into a crowd of anti-Zohran protesters. On video. Yet NBC reports these bombs were ‘found.’ And implies they belonged to the conservative protesters. Truly a new low in journalism.”

Mayor Mamdani similarly focused on Lang. Here was the mayor’s statement on X:

“Yesterday, white supremacist Jake Lang organized a protest outside Gracie Mansion rooted in bigotry and racism. Such hate has no place in New York City. It is an affront to our city’s values and the unity that defines who we are.

What followed was even more disturbing. Violence at a protest is never acceptable. The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.”

Notice how his statement doesn’t actually state what really happened — that the counterprotesters were responsible for the bombs. Notice also how he calls out Lang by name and says this his protest is bigoted and racist, and an affront NYC’s values, and to unity, and so on? But he doesn’t call out the Kayumi and Balat by name.

Look, I agree that Lang is bigoted against Muslims. But I think terrorism is a worse crime than bigotry.

It’s not often I agree with her, but I have to say Laura Loomer is right about this one. She writes on X: “The media keeps trying to make it seem like someone tried to bomb @ZohranKMamdani, when in reality, it was Muslim Mamdani supporter who threw a homemade nail bomb at @JakeLang.”

Let’s not be so timid about calling out Islamic terrorism. What do you say, mister mayor?

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.

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