There Was a Jihad Bombing in New York City, and Here’s How Mamdani and the Media Framed It

By Robert Spencer | Mar 9, 2026

Mayor Mamdani explaining how Islam and Muhammad should inspire immigration. Screengrab via X 

New York City has not only just experienced yet another jihad terror attack; it also has just given us a particularly revolting example of the leftist tactic of DARVO: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. In New York and in the establishment media today, when Islamic jihadis strike, it’s another instance of “Islamophobia” and Muslims are the victims.

New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani was full of righteous indignation. “Yesterday,” he wrote early on Sunday afternoon, “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.”

Anyone reading that would get the impression that “white supremacist Jake Lang” or his followers were the ones who attempted to “use an explosive device and hurt others.” That would have been a reasonable assumption if one formed one’s opinions solely on the basis of establishment media reporting about this incident.

In reality, while Mamdani doesn’t name the perpetrators, the violence came from two Muslims who came to protest against Lang’s group, and lobbed an IED at them while screaming “Allahu akbar.” None of the coverage, however, talks about Islamic jihad violence. Instead, the establishment media, like Mamdani, works hard to give people an idea of this incident that was just the opposite of what really happened.

Your friend and mine, Kevin Downey Jr., tells me that “the local NYC radio news stations are framing the attack as a ‘white supremacist’ rally. The news station is 1010 WINS. They are hitting the story every eight minutes or so.”

CBS News’s Sunday afternoon story on the incident begins by giving the details of the “anti-Islam protest” under the headline “Improvised explosive found at protests near Manhattan’s Gracie Mansion, Mamdani’s official residence, NYPD says,” giving the impression that the “anti-Islam” protesters targeted Mamdani.

Only in the sixth paragraph, at a point where most readers have stopped reading, does CBS get around to noting that “a counter-protester, identified as 18-year-old Emir Balat of Pennsylvania, lit and threw an ignited device toward the protesters.” Then in the seventh paragraph, we learn that “in videos depicting the chaos, a man appears to yell ‘Allahu Akbar’ just as Balat throws the device that Tisch described as ‘a jar wrapped in tape, importantly with nuts, bolts, and screws along with a hobby fuse.’”

There is more. Read the rest here.