New York City police are investigating a possible jihadist motive behind the throwing of a homemade explosive device outside the official residence of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The failed attack occurred on Saturday following an Islamophobic protest organized by a well-known far-right agitator, which was met by a larger counter-protest. No one was injured, but the FBI is now investigating whether the incident may have been inspired by the tactics of the Islamic State (ISIS). Federal prosecutors are expected to unveil charges against the two people arrested for throwing the device at protesters attending a far-right rally in the vicinity of Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the mayor of New York City.
New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Jessica Tisch reported Monday that three explosive devices were found at the scene, including one discovered inside a vehicle the following day, which showed no traces of explosives. Tisch stated at a press conference that the device thrown near Mamdani’s residence was “not a hoax device or a smoke bomb. It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death.”
According to the commissioner, analysis of one of the two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) found after the far-right protest revealed that it contained TATP, acetone peroxide, “a dangerous and highly volatile homemade explosive that has been used in IED attacks around the world.” One of these devices was thrown outside Gracie Mansion, Mamdani’s official residence. The mayor was not in the building at the time.
The Islamophobic demonstration was organized by Jack Lang, a well-known far-right figure who has also led protests in Minneapolis. The event was advertised under the slogan “Stop the Islamic takeover of New York City,” alluding to the mayor’s religion. The climate of intimidation against Mamdani has been escalating. The mayor had been the target of racist and Islamophobic insults just days earlier from Sid Rosenberg, a well-known radio host affiliated with the most extreme wing of the Republican Party. Rosenberg, who is Jewish, viciously attacked Mamdani after he spoke out against the war in Iran, calling him an “America hating, Jew hating, Radical Islam cockroach.”
The mayor, who participated in the police chief’s press conference on Monday to discuss the incident, agreed that the devices found “were intended to injure, maim, or worse.” This is the first time in nine years that a homemade explosive device has been used in an attack in New York City. Two men, both from Pennsylvania, were arrested Saturday in connection with the incident. They will be tried in federal court in Manhattan on terrorism charges.
The sequence of events on Saturday is, however, confusing. Lang, who usually dresses in military attire, appeared with a goat and about 20 followers, who wore hats with the American flag and sweatshirts emblazoned with the word “freedom.” As the meager march progressed, tensions rose with the arrival of about 100 counter-protesters. Toward the end of the protest, a man set fire to a small black object and threw it onto the sidewalk in front of the mayor’s residence. Police quickly arrested him and an accomplice, as smoke was billowing from the device.
In total, six people were arrested, including the two men, aged 18 and 19, who were brought before a judge. Both are of Muslim origin and told police that their motivation for the attack was Lang’s disrespect towards Muslims. It is unknown whether the young men had any direct contact with ISIS, although sources close to the investigation maintain that one of them confessed to having watched videos of the jihadist group online.
ISIS no longer controls significant territory in the Middle East as it once did in the so-called caliphate it established between Syria and Iraq, but its message continues to resonate online, as well as in local satellite groups of the organization. Many of the jihadist attacks perpetrated worldwide in recent years have been inspired by ISIS, but the perpetrators acted independently, as lone wolves radicalized by online propaganda. The terrorists who carry out these attacks rarely have any contact with the group.
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