Is ISIS now part of the ‘progressive’ alliance?

Last Saturday in New York City, a thing happened. It involved far-right agitator Jake Lang… and some other people, who did some things… with some objects.

That was the clear-as-mud picture painted by the media in the immediate aftermath of a terrifying attack by two ISIS-inspired suspected terrorists on an anti-Islam protest, outside the New York City mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion. A homemade nail bomb was thrown at Jake Lang, the organiser of the protest.

Lang spent four years in prison for his involvement in the riot on Capitol Hill on 6 January 2021 before being pardoned by President Trump. He is known for his provocative stunts and deliberately offensive statements. On Saturday’s protest, he brought a goat to Gracie Mansion to protest what he called the Islamic takeover of New York City by newly elected mayor Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani has made his Muslim faith a centre point of his administration.

Lang’s group was outnumbered by counter-protesters, two of whom turned up with deadly explosives. The New York Police Department (NYPD) said that Emir Balat and Ibraham Kayumi drove 100 miles from their home in Pennsylvania with the express aim of carrying out an attack ‘even bigger’ than the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people. Another bomb was dropped near a group of police officers. It also failed to go off.

The first reaction from the media was about as confused as a dementia patient lost in a busy garden centre. Screen grabs widely shared on X showed the New York Times headline: ‘Smoking jars of metal and fuses thrown at protest near mayor’s house’ – which it seems was later changed. The New York Times also ran a story with a subheading referring to the bomb as a ‘device that emitted smoke’. Local broadcaster NBC New York wrote: ‘Two people in custody after “suspicious devices” ignited outside NYC mayor’s official residence.’

A device that generates smoke… a container with metal and fuses? Was it a toaster? A lamp? The media left it open to interpretation. To paraphrase JK Rowling, I’m sure there used to be a word for these objects: Lombs? Jombs? Pombs?

TMZ called them ‘smoke bombs’. At least it used the B-word. These weren’t harmless pyrotechnics, however – they were homemade explosives filled with shrapnel and TATP, ‘a dangerous and highly volatile homemade explosive that has been used in IED attacks around the world’ (according to Time magazine).

In case anyone out there might still be under the impression that the violent fanaticism of the lefty culture warriors is abating, Saturday’s events should lay that to rest. Lang’s stunt was undoubtedly designed to cause maximum offence, but the cognitive dissonance of the counter-protesters and the media was truly something to behold. It was the most clear example yet of the theory that ‘words I don’t like’ are literally violence, but literal violence from ‘people I like’ is not violent at all.

One counter-protester, Walter Masterson, was in the middle of delivering a Kumbaya, we-love-everyone speech when one of the two attackers threw the first bomb. ‘We want everyone here to stay in New York. You don’t get to come from outside, and then tell everyone else…’, he was saying as Emir Balat – who had indeed come from outside New York – appeared behind him and, with a facial expression filled with rage and hate, appeared to hurl the nail bomb just above Masterson’s head, before running away.

Another video posted to X showed the attack from Lang’s perspective. As he stood there, annoying the counter-protesters, the bomb landed near him, prompting him and his supporters to run away. ‘Somebody threw a fucking bomb, bro!’, says one man. ‘That was a nail bomb!’, says another. Voices are heard thanking Jesus that the nail bomb did not go off. Eventually, someone calls out, ‘Somebody’s gotta get the goat’, and a female voice is heard saying, ‘Oh the goat!’.

The mayor’s immediate reaction was to condemn the ‘vile protest rooted in white supremacy’. New York governor Kathy Hochul blamed ‘both’ sides. Never mind that one side came armed only with a goat and a bad attitude, the other with multiple bombs and gave a statement to police that read in part: ‘I pledge allegiance to the Islamic State. Die in your rage you kufar.’ (sic)

Masterson, the now famous counterprotester, posted on X earlier this week: ‘I stand by [my speech]. As a born and raised New Yorker, everyone is welcome. Everyone except chief goat-fucker Jake Lang.’

So according to these truly thick white liberals with precisely zero self-preservation skills, coming to New York to chuck bombs at non-Muslims is just part of life in an open, tolerant city. If anything, it should be celebrated! However, coming to New York to loudly complain about Muslims wanting to bomb non-Muslims is an outrage of the highest order and will not be tolerated.

Good luck with that, ya dumb bastards!

Jenny Holland is a former newspaper reporter and speechwriter. Visit her Substack here.