FBI charges 2 with terror over explosives at anti-Muslim rally

Authorities have charged two young men with terror and weapons counts in an improvised explosive device attack at a right-wing rally outside New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence, according to a complaint unsealed Monday.

Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi were arrested at the scene Saturday and expressly cited ISIS in the immediate aftermath, according to the complaint sworn by an FBI agent. They were due in court Monday afternoon.

Police said the two were responsible for throwing two devices at a rally by far-right activist Jake Lang and a few dozen supporters, who clashed with about 100 counterprotesters. No one was injured by the devices.

Balat, 18, and Kayumi, 19, are charged with attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization, using a weapon of mass destruction and other explosives counts. Both made explicit references to ISIS, the extremist militant group, at the time of their arrests on Saturday, according to the complaint.

While being placed inside an NYPD vehicle, Kayumi said “ISIS” was the reason for his actions, FBI Agent Jennifer Gioia alleged in the complaint. Balat, 18, told authorities he had pledged allegiance to ISIS, Gioia stated.

The rally was led by Lang, who was charged with assaulting a police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol but was pardoned, alongside hundreds of other Jan. 6 defendants, when President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year. 

Lang billed Saturday’s event as a “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” demonstration. It grew chaotic as a large crowd of counterprotesters clashed with Lang and his supporters. Three members of Lang’s group were charged with disorderly conduct, and a fourth with unlawfully using pepper spray, Tisch said.

Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, were not at the mansion at the time.

Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, called Lang’s demonstration “a vile protest rooted in white supremacy” but condemned the violence and defended the right to free speech.

“Anti-Muslim bigotry is nothing new to me, nor is it anything new for any of the 1 million or so Muslim New Yorkers who know this city as our home,” he said Monday outside the residence. “While I found this protest appalling, I will not waiver in my belief that is should be allowed to happen.”

The explosive devices contained a “a dangerous and highly volatile homemade explosive” known as triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. The substance has been used in ISIS terror attacks in Europe.

Tisch noted the investigation has not linked the action to the join U.S.-Israel military campaign in Iran.