New York City was very nearly the site of a deadly radical Islamic terror attack over the weekend – had it not been for the poor bomb-making skills of two would-be terrorists, and perhaps some divine intervention. But you wouldn’t know it from the corporate media coverage of the event, which has gone to extreme lengths to mask the motivations of the would-be killers.
On Saturday, a group of demonstrators gathered outside Gracie Mansion in Manhattan, long home to the Big Apple’s mayors, in a protest titled “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City.” Shortly thereafter, a larger group of counter-protesters arrived, and the two groups began shouting at one another as police did their best to maintain order and security.
Then, in a horrifying moment, two Islamic terrorists – Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19 – lit fuses on homemade bombs and tossed them into the crowd. By the grace of God, the bombs did not go off, and no one was injured. Thanks to the heroic efforts of New York’s Finest, both men were swiftly arrested, and authorities do not believe that there is any active threat.
There can be no doubt that radical Islamic beliefs motivated the two attempted terrorists. Shocking video shows one of the teens shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he hurls a bomb into the crowd. New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has said the attack was “motivated by extremist ideology and inspired by a violent foreign terrorist organization.” The Department of Justice has additionally stated that “these men allegedly sought to inflict mass casualties in service to ISIS with the hope of exceeding the carnage of the Boston Marathon bombing.”
It is difficult to overstate just how alarming this failed attack should be to every decent American. Balat and Kayumi were both reportedly born in the United States and were therefore U.S. citizens. Their parents immigrated here from the Middle East. Neither had any criminal history. Thus far, it isn’t even clear how the two men knew each other. By all accounts, both Balat and Kayumi were largely normal young adults from the suburbs of Philadelphia.
Those facts make what occurred over the weekend all the more terrifying. This is the reality Americans now confront in their own country – not thousands of miles away, but in the largest and most important U.S. city. Homegrown radical Islamic terrorists are hurling IEDs at protesters’ steps away from the mayor’s house, less than 25 years after 9/11. Kayumi told authorities he watched ISIS propaganda on his phone, while Balat called police infidels and said he hoped they would die.
But the liberal media has steadfastly refused to name this threat for what it is. Instead, the headlines have referred to the pair of Islamic terrorists as “Pennsylvania teens” and attempted to obscure all connection to radical Islam.
The most egregious offender was CNN, who described the attempted attack in a since-deleted social media post as follows: “Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could’ve been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather. But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim outside protest Mayor Mamdani’s home.”
Even for CNN, that’s a new low – making it seem as if Balat and Kayumi simply wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time. As if these “Pennsylvania teenagers” have no agency or responsibility for plotting to maim and kill potentially dozens of people. The outlet later issued a statement saying that the post “failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting.”
But CNN was hardly the only outlet attempting to obscure the reality of the situation. Another since-deleted headline from The New York Times described the terrorist attack as “Smoking Jars of Metal and Fuses Thrown at Protest Near Mayor’s House.” (Notice how the paper contorts itself to avoid mentioning who threw those “smoking jars.”) Another Times story referred to the bomb as a “device that emitted smoke.” NBC New York was even more vague, calling the bombs “suspicious devices.”
Perhaps this is what Americans should have already come to expect from the media. After all, CNN is the same outlet that trotted out the “fiery but mostly peaceful” line to describe the BLM riots in 2020 – perhaps the most infamous cable news chyron of all time. And the Times is the same paper that helped prop up myriad corporate media hoaxes, from portraying criminal illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a “Maryland father” to discrediting the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Nonetheless, the media’s efforts to hide the motivations behind the attempted terrorist attack in New York City and their refusal to name the threat of radical Islamic extremism are alarming developments that shouldn’t go unnoticed. For Americans who want to be informed about the real threats facing the country – not just “Pennsylvania teenagers” – it’s best to look elsewhere for news.
Shane Harris is the Editor-in-Chief of AMAC Newsline. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
