Monday afternoon. After a morning press conference where Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood outside Gracie Mansion and opened his remarks by calling an anti-Islam protest "a vile protest rooted in white supremacy" – while his own police commissioner stood next to him confirming the case was being investigated as "ISIS-inspired terrorism" – the mayor posted this to X:

Reading it felt like getting smacked in the face with a four-by-four. Not because of what it said. Because of what it didn't say. And because of who almost certainly wrote it.

This statement has Zara Rahim's fingerprints all over it – Mamdani's senior communications strategist, the woman Fortune credited with "masterminding" his mayoral victory, the same operative who served as a pro-Palestinian voice during campaign strategy discussions according to the New York Times, and who once tweeted about President Trump, "I hope he dies."

Every syllable is calibrated. "Heinous act of terrorism" – strong enough to survive a news cycle. "Proclaiming their allegiance to ISIS" – acknowledging the fact, because denying it would be insane after the federal complaint landed. But no "Islamic terrorism." No "radical Islam." No "ISIS-inspired Islamic terrorism." The word "Islamic" is treated like plutonium.

And before this statement was posted, it almost certainly passed through the hands of Ramzi Kassem, Mamdani's chief counsel – the man who defended al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed al-Darbi at Guantanamo Bay, who represented anti-Israel Columbia protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, who founded CLEAR (a legal nonprofit that advises people against cooperating with "national security" and "counterterrorism" investigations), who co-founded a Muslim student group at Columbia that a fellow student said brought speakers who "support violence against American and Israeli civilians," and who wrote after 9/11 that the attackers were "not driven to their actions by some intrinsic evil" but by "resentment towards the United States rooted in political realities shaped by our country's policies."

That's the man advising the mayor on legal language. Today. While two ISIS-pledged terrorists sit in federal custody.

This is the inner circle that produced a statement about an ISIS terror attack that reads like it was drafted by a defense attorney, edited by a crisis comms operative, and approved by a mayor who would rather eat glass than connect the word "Islamic" to the word "terrorism."

Here's how we got here.

Two self-radicalized ISIS supporters built nail bombs packed with TATP -- the same "Mother of Satan" explosive used in the Paris and Manchester attacks -- drove from Bucks County, Pennsylvania to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, screamed "Allahu Akbar," and hurled improvised explosive devices at a crowd of Americans exercising their First Amendment rights outside Gracie Mansion.

The only reason we're not counting body bags is that the bombs didn't detonate.

And New York City's mayor used his first live press conference on the matter to lecture the city about "white supremacy."

Let that settle in for a moment.

What Actually Happened

Saturday, March 7. A small protest organized by pardoned January 6 defendant Jake Lang – about 20 people total – gathered outside Gracie Mansion under the banner "Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City." Crude? Sure. Provocative? Absolutely. Protected speech? Without question.

A counterprotest, "Run the Nazis Out of New York City/Stand Against Hate," drew over 125 people. Among them were Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19. Both from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Both from immigrant families -- Balat's parents naturalized from Turkey in 2017, Kayumi's parents from Afghanistan in 2004 and 2009.

Both had traveled to Istanbul in recent years. Balat spent more than three months there from May to August 2025. Kayumi traveled to Istanbul and Saudi Arabia in 2024. Law enforcement sources told the New York Post that both had traveled to "terror-training hot spots."

At approximately 12:38 p.m., Balat lit a device – a sports drink bottle filled with TATP, set inside a glass jar packed with nuts, bolts, and screws, fitted with a hobby fuse connected to an M80-type firework – and hurled it toward the protest area. Verified video, captured him yelling "Allahu Akbar" as he threw it. The device struck a police barrier and extinguished itself, landing feet from NYPD officers.

Balat then ran to Kayumi, grabbed a second device, lit it, and dropped it while running. Both were tackled and arrested by officers who, as Commissioner Jessica Tisch put it, "ran toward a lit IED without hesitation."

A third device was found Sunday in a vehicle on East End Avenue, roughly three blocks south of Gracie Mansion. The vehicle belonged to one of the suspects.

The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force confirmed both devices were genuine IEDs containing TATP -- a highly volatile homemade explosive that typically doesn't even require a fuse to detonate. The Quantico lab confirmed these were not smoke bombs, not hoaxes, not firecrackers. They were weapons designed to kill.

When Balat was walked out of the 26th Precinct on Monday morning, he raised a single index finger -- the tawhid gesture, a symbol widely associated with ISIS militants.

The Federal Complaint: In Their Own Words

The sealed federal complaint, filed in the Southern District of New York by FBI Special Agent Jennifer Gioia, charges both men with five counts:

Count One: Attempted Provision of Material Support and Resources to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (ISIS). 18 U.S.C. Section 2339A(b).

Count Two: Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction. 18 U.S.C. Section 2332a.

Count Three: Transportation of Explosive Materials.

Count Four: Interstate Transportation and Receipt of Explosives -- with knowledge and intent that the explosives would be used to kill, injure, and intimidate, and to damage and destroy property.

Count Five: Unlawful Possession of Destructive Devices.

Read that again. Count Two. Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction. Not "suspicious device." Not "explosive device." A weapon of mass destruction. That is the language of the United States government.

But it's what the suspects said that should keep every New Yorker awake tonight.

According to the complaint, as Kayumi was being loaded into an NYPD vehicle, someone from the crowd yelled at him asking why he did it. Kayumi's response, captured on NYPD body-worn camera footage: "ISIS."

Balat was even more forthcoming. In the squad car en route to the precinct, without being questioned, he made spontaneous statements captured on body-cam: "This isn't a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet... We take action!" And: "If I didn't do it someone else will come and do it."

After arriving at the precinct, Balat was advised of his Miranda rights. He waived them. He requested a piece of paper and a pen. And he wrote: "All praise is due to Allah lord of all worlds! I pledge my allegience [sic] to the Islamic State. Die in your rage yu [sic] kuffar! Emir B."

The FBI agent notes in the complaint that "kuffar" is an Arabic term for "non-believers" or "infidels," and that "Die in your rage" is a slogan used by ISIS based on a verse in the Quran.

Kayumi, for his part, stated that he was affiliated with ISIS, that he watched ISIS propaganda on his phone, and that he was partly inspired to carry out his actions that day by ISIS.

Then came the line that should have been the lead of every news broadcast in America.

Law enforcement officers asked Balat if he was familiar with the Boston Marathon bombing. If that was what he had hoped to accomplish.

Balat's response: "No, even bigger. It was only three deaths."

Let that land. An 18-year-old, sitting in an NYPD precinct, was disappointed that his TATP nail bomb didn't produce a body count larger than the Boston Marathon bombing. He wanted to do better than the Tsarnaev brothers.

What the Mayor Said

Mamdani's first public statement came Sunday evening on X. He named Jake Lang by name. Called him a "white supremacist." Called his protest "rooted in bigotry and racism." Called it "an affront to our city's values."

He did not name Emir Balat. He did not name Ibrahim Kayumi. He did not use the word "terrorism." He did not mention ISIS. He called the TATP nail bombs "an explosive device."

Then came Monday's press conference outside Gracie Mansion, with Commissioner Tisch standing beside him.

Tisch was direct: "I can confirm this morning that this is being investigated as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism." She announced the suspects would face federal charges. She described the TATP. She honored the two officers who ran toward the lit IED.

Mamdani opened his remarks by calling the Lang demonstration "a vile protest rooted in white supremacy." He told reporters: "Anti-Muslim bigotry is nothing new to me, nor is it anything new for the 1 million or so Muslim New Yorkers who know this city as our home."

He described Balat and Kayumi as "two men who traveled from Pennsylvania and attempted to bring violence to New York City." He said they were "suspected of coming here to commit an act of terrorism."

He used the word "terrorism" once -- buried in the middle of his remarks, stripped of any modifier. No "Islamic terrorism." No "ISIS-inspired terrorism." No "radical Islamist terrorism." Just the word, standing alone, like a man holding a live wire and trying not to get shocked.

He refused to condemn the suspects directly. When pressed, his administration's response was to decline to engage with what they characterized as "unsubstantiated political allegations" -- the kind of boilerplate language a comms shop deploys when they want to reframe factual questions as partisan attacks.

He then defended the right of protest, including Lang's, stating: "While I found this protest appalling, I will not waver in my belief that it should be allowed to happen."

That's the part the press ran with. What a brave defense of the First Amendment.

Meanwhile, two men who pledged allegiance to ISIS in writing, who wanted to outdo the Boston Marathon bombing, were being processed on federal terrorism charges including use of a weapon of mass destruction -- and the mayor of the largest city in America opened his press conference by attacking Jake Lang and blaming white supremacy.

The Apple and the Tree

Here's where the story gets deeper. Because Zohran Mamdani's reluctance to confront Islamic terrorism didn't materialize on Saturday. It was baked in long before he ever ran for office.

The Father: Mahmood Mamdani is a longtime tenured Columbia University professor specializing in colonialism and decolonization. In 2004, he published "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror." The book argued for a "moral equivalence" between the United States and al-Qaeda. It compared the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to the destruction of the World Trade Center. It blamed America for the creation of al-Qaeda. And it contained this passage: "We need to recognize the suicide bomber, first and foremost, as a category of soldier. Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism."

Mahmood Mamdani also sits on the advisory policy council of the Gaza Tribunal, an organization tied to Sami Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor who admitted to conspiring to aid the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in 2006 and was deported to Turkey.

When the New York Times interviewed Zohran's parents about their influence on his politics, his mother was explicit: "Of course the world we live in, and what we write and film and think about, is the world that Zohran has very much absorbed."

The Son: On April 20, 2013 -- five days after the Boston Marathon bombing killed three people, including 8-year-old Martin Richard, and wounded over 260 others -- Zohran Mamdani tweeted a Slate article with the caption: "The implications of not mirandizing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev." His first public reaction to the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11 wasn't grief for the dead or outrage at the bombers. It was concern for the constitutional rights of the bomber.

As Dave Portnoy put it: "His reaction to that bombing is how did the police not read this guy the Miranda acts when he's sitting in a boat, not the people he killed."

This is the same man who, as mayor, now refuses to say the words "Islamic terrorism" while a suspect in his own city wrote a handwritten pledge of allegiance to ISIS.

And the pattern extends to his political network. Mamdani endorsed Aber Kawas for a New York State Assembly seat in Queens. Drew Pavlou's research revealed that Kawas described convicted Al Qaeda financier Fahad Hashmi -- who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda in federal court in Manhattan -- as an "imprisoned hero." She called Ahmad Farhani, convicted of plotting to bomb New York City synagogues, her "brother." She dismissed 9/11 as "a terror attack that like a couple of people did."

This is not a one-off rhetorical stumble. This is a worldview.

The Week from Hell

The Gracie Mansion bombing doesn't exist in a vacuum. It sits atop a week of escalating crises that all point in the same direction.

Last Tuesday, Mamdani dodged a reporter's question about whether Iran is better off without the Ayatollah. He wouldn't answer.

Last Friday, Jewish Insider published a report revealing that Mamdani's wife, First Lady Rama Duwaji, had liked multiple Instagram posts on October 7, 2023 -- the day of the Hamas attack -- that celebrated the massacre. One post from The Slow Factory showed Palestinians breaching the Israeli border with the caption "Breaking the walls of apartheid and military occupation." Another, from The People's Forum (part of Neville Roy Singham's pro-China, pro-Russia, pro-Iran propaganda network), promoted the Times Square rally held one day after 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered. Duwaji also liked a post calling the New York Times reporting on October 7 sexual violence a fabricated "mass rape hoax." The Free Press later reported she liked a post referring to the documented sexual atrocities as fabricated.

Mamdani's response? "My wife is the love of my life, and she's also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall."

No condemnation. No distancing. No acknowledgment.

Saturday: two ISIS-pledged terrorists attempt a nail bombing on his doorstep.

Monday: the mayor opens his press conference by attacking Jake Lang and blaming white supremacy.

The Math That Matters

Here's the inventory from Saturday:

Jake Lang's protest: 20 people. Crude signs. A roasted pig and a goat. Zero explosive devices.

The counterprotest: 125 people. Two ISIS-pledged participants carrying three TATP nail bombs built to kill, who traveled from Pennsylvania with the stated goal of outdoing the Boston Marathon bombing.

One side brought words. The other brought weapons of mass destruction. Literally. That's the federal charge.

The mayor named the man with the words by name. He could not bring himself to name the men with the bombs for 24 hours. And when his police commissioner confirmed it was ISIS-inspired terrorism, the mayor's leading remarks were about "white supremacy."

The mayor's father wrote a book arguing that suicide bombers are soldiers and that America created its own terrorists. The mayor's wife liked posts celebrating the October 7 massacre. The mayor himself, when confronted with Islamic terrorism in 2013, worried about the bomber's Miranda rights. The mayor endorsed a candidate who called a convicted Al Qaeda financier a hero.

And now, when an 18-year-old writes "I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State" in an NYPD precinct, the mayor blames Islamophobia.

Rep. Mike Lawler put it plainly: "White supremacy and radical Islam are equally bad. That shouldn't be hard to say."

For Zohran Mamdani, apparently, it is. And the federal complaint tells us why.

The Double Standard: A Mayor Who Attacks Jews on Instinct But Can't Name Islamic Terror

What makes Mamdani's refusal to confront Islamic terrorism so striking isn't just the refusal itself. It's the contrast with how quickly and aggressively he moves against Jewish institutions, Israeli interests, and anyone associated with them -- often without evidence, often without provocation, and always without hesitation.

Day One in office -- January 1, 2026: Within hours of being sworn in, Mamdani signed executive orders revoking the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, which the city had adopted to identify and combat anti-Jewish discrimination. He revoked an executive order requiring demonstrations be set back 15 to 60 feet from places of worship -- a measure specifically designed to protect synagogues after a surge in targeting following October 7. He revoked the city's anti-BDS executive order that prevented discriminatory divestment actions against Israel -- putting at risk over $300 million in city investments in Israeli bonds.

He did all of this without evidence that these protections had caused any harm. He did it because his ideology demanded it.

The Park East Synagogue incident: When pro-Palestinian protesters swarmed Park East Synagogue on the Upper East Side in November 2025, screaming "globalize the intifada," "death to the IDF," and directing the slur "f**king Jewish pricks" at congregants, Mamdani's response was to blame the synagogue. His office said "sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law" -- because the synagogue had hosted an event about immigration to Israel. He did not call the protest antisemitic. He did not name a single protester. He effectively told a synagogue it had it coming.

"Globalize the intifada": Throughout the mayoral campaign, Mamdani repeatedly refused to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada." The U.S. Holocaust Museum called his defense of the phrase "outrageous and especially offensive to survivors." The ADL called it "an explicit incitement to violence." After the Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre in Australia – where 15 people were murdered in what authorities called ISIS-inspired "globalized intifada" violence – Mamdani condemned the attack but still would not disavow the phrase that inspired it.

"The boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it's been laced by the IDF": At a 2023 DSA panel, Mamdani blamed the Israeli military for police brutality in New York City. No evidence presented. No sourcing. Just a declaration connecting Jewish state institutions to the oppression of New Yorkers. This from a man who, as mayor, now says his "role is not to police language."

Pledged to arrest Netanyahu: During the campaign, Mamdani pledged to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on war crimes charges if he entered New York City. He made this commitment publicly, repeatedly, with zero ambiguity.

Now look at the other side of the ledger. When it comes to Islamic extremism, this same man:

Cannot say "Islamic terrorism" while standing next to his own police commissioner who just said "ISIS-inspired terrorism."

Cannot name the suspects in his Sunday statement while naming Jake Lang by name.

Cannot condemn them directly -- his administration's response when pressed was to "decline to engage with unsubstantiated political allegations."

Cannot acknowledge the ideological roots of an attack where the perpetrator literally wrote an ISIS pledge on paper and told investigators he wanted to surpass the Boston Marathon bombing.

This isn't nuance. It's a pattern with a clear direction. Mamdani will blame Israel for NYPD policing without a shred of evidence. He'll blame a synagogue for hosting an immigration event. He'll revoke Holocaust-era protections for Jewish New Yorkers on his first day in office. He'll name Jake Lang within hours of a protest.

But he cannot -- will not -- name Islamic terrorism when two men build TATP nail bombs, scream "Allahu Akbar," pledge allegiance to ISIS in writing, and tell cops they wanted a body count bigger than Boston.

The question every New Yorker should be asking is simple: Why does one direction come so easily and the other require hours of legal review?

The Cleanup Tweet

Which brings us back to where we started. That X post.

Late Monday afternoon, after getting hammered all day -- after the federal complaint was unsealed, after every outlet in America published the ISIS pledge, after the "No, even bigger" quote about Boston went viral, after commentators from Dave Portnoy to Rep. Mike Lawler to the New York Post editorial board eviscerated his press conference -- Mamdani's team finally produced the statement we opened this piece with.

It reads like what it is: a product of Ramzi Kassem's legal caution, Zara Rahim's communications calculus, and a mayor who needed six more hours and an unsealed federal complaint before he could bring himself to name two ISIS terrorists.

Even then, the word "Islamic" appears nowhere. The feds will say "Islamic State." His own commissioner will say "ISIS-inspired." Mamdani treats the word like plutonium.

And even this sanitized, lawyer-scrubbed acknowledgment of reality came only after denial was no longer possible. The ISIS pledge was in writing. The Boston Marathon quote was in the court filing. Balat raised the tawhid finger on camera during his perp walk. There was no more room to hide behind "unsubstantiated political allegations."

So the Kassem-Rahim-Najmi brain trust produced the minimum viable statement -- the absolute least their client could say without being accused of covering for terrorists. And they posted it hours after the facts were already public, on a Monday afternoon when the news cycle had already formed its conclusions.

This is not leadership. This is damage control by committee -- and the committee's composition tells you everything about why the damage happened in the first place.

What Comes Next

Balat and Kayumi were arraigned in Manhattan federal court Monday afternoon on five federal counts each, including material support for a foreign terrorist organization and use of a weapon of mass destruction. Both defendants requested protective custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Balat's attorney told NBC News his client is a high school senior who was "three classes from graduation" with "complicated stuff going on in his personal life." That's one way to describe pledging allegiance to ISIS and building nail bombs.

The FBI has executed search warrants at both homes in Bucks County and at an additional address in New Jersey. Investigators are tracing the overseas travel to Turkey, the radicalization timeline, the ISIS propaganda consumption, and whether anyone else was involved.

The city is under heightened counterterrorism alert. Governor Hochul has deployed over 1,000 National Guard members to critical transit sites.

And the mayor of New York City -- the man who revoked antisemitism protections on Day One, who blamed a synagogue for being targeted, who pledged to arrest Netanyahu, who blamed the IDF for NYPD policing, who named Jake Lang within hours but couldn't name ISIS-pledged bombers for a full day -- still cannot say the words "Islamic terrorism."

Even when the suspects wrote it down for him.

Even when they told him they wanted to kill more people than the Boston Marathon bombing.

Even when his own police commissioner said it standing right next to him.

The word Zohran Mamdani will not say tells you more about this mayor than every word he will.

The Unredacted is an NYC-focused investigative journalism publication.

Disclaimer: This article contains analysis of publicly reported facts from the unsealed federal criminal complaint (United States v. Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, Southern District of New York), law enforcement officials, named media outlets, and official press conferences. Statements attributed to the defendants are quoted from the federal complaint as filed by FBI Special Agent Jennifer Gioia. Statements attributed to public figures are sourced from verified reporting and official transcripts. The suspects referenced in this article have been charged but, as of publication, have not been convicted. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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