Orwell Comes to Gracie Mansion
On Saturday, a man yelled “Allahu Akbar” and threw bombs into a crowd of anti-Islamic protesters who were protesting against what they described as the “Islamic takeover of New York City.” Thankfully, the bomb did not go off. The response of New York’s elected leaders and media left a lot to be desired. NBC New York posted a tweet that said the devices were “found” outside Mayor Mamdani’s home. The article they posted did not report on the counter-protesters that were there or the man who yelled “Allahu Akbar” throwing the bomb. Through its omission, the article led readers to believe that the anti-Muslim protesters planted the explosives to target Mayor Mamdani.
After receiving significant pushback online, NBC New York rewrote their tweet and made significant revisions to their article, without issuing a correction. X added a community note to the post indicating that the bombs were thrown at the anti-Muslim protesters and not by them, “as this post and the story would lead you to believe.” The community note also emphasized that the attackers yelled “allahu akbar” as they threw the bombs at the protesters.
NBC New York was not alone. TMZ tweeted, “‘Suspicious Devices Found Outside Zohran Mamdani’s Residence.” It doesn’t get more Orwellian. The devices weren’t found outside Mamdani’s residence; they were thrown in broad daylight by a man who yelled “Allahu Akbar.” The TMZ post also makes it seem like the anti-Muslim protesters placed the bombs there. Their misuse of language is apparent. “Found” implies the bombs were planted at Mamdani’s residence to target him. That is not what occurred, and the media’s framing is deceptive. X added a similar community note to that post.
New York’s elected leaders and candidates were no better. Gov. Kathy Hochul tweeted, “I’ve been briefed on today’s incident outside Gracie’s Mansion. I’m grateful there are no reported injuries. New York respects the right to peaceful protest, but we have zero tolerance for hate or violence [emphasis added].”
As the Supreme Court ruled in Skokie, people in America do have the right to peacefully protest, even if they are espousing hate speech. Hochul equates the political speech of the victims with their attackers’ attempt to murder them, while framing her tweet in a way that makes it sound like the victims committed the violence.
It took her 24 hours to put out a more forceful condemnation of the attempted bombing.
State Sen. Liz Krueger tweeted, “New York is no place for anti-Muslim hate or any kind of prejudice. We don’t need out-of-state provocateurs sowing fear, division, and violence in our city.” Sen. Krueger did not condemn the bomb in her statement; she condemned the protesters.
As of this writing, New York Attorney Letitia James has said nothing. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has also said nothing. Mayor Mamdani waited 24 hours to tweet and, thankfully, did condemn the attempted mass murder as “even more disturbing” than the protest. However, he led with condemning the protest itself for being “white supremacist,” while saying nothing about the ideology of the person who yelled “allahu akbar” while throwing a bomb.
The bombs weren’t targeting Mamdani; they were thrown at the people who were protesting against him.
New York City Council candidate Lindsey Boylan, who backed Mamdani in the NYC mayor’s race, tweeted, “I am very glad to hear that the mayor and his wife are safe. While there is a lot we do not know, we can be certain that the escalating anti-Muslim rhetoric enabled by many of our leaders is making all of us less safe.” This is Orwellian. The bombs weren’t targeting Mamdani; they were thrown at the people who were protesting against him.
The statements from Hochul and the above-mentioned local politicians demonstrate that those politicians view speech as worse than violent murder. Their initial reactions tell us everything we need to know. News just broke that Mayor Mamdani’s wife liked a post that described the October 7 terrorist attack as a “mass liberation.” Now this.
On top of that, Mamdani himself has previously praised the Holy Land 5, a group that was convicted of financing Islamic terror abroad. What happened to New York? This reminds me of the systematic rape of girls that was covered up by “conservative” and leftist politicians alike in the U.K., who were afraid that confronting the rapes being committed by migrant gangs would make them be labeled as racist. Here, our politicians’ hierarchy of values is also warped. Their first instinct was to condemn racism instead of condemning the attempted terrorist attack. This is similar to some on the Left’s response to the slaying of Charlie Kirk. They thought he was racist and, hence, justified and celebrated the violence against him.
If the reaction to speech is violence, we will not live in a democracy for very long. Imagine the reporting if a man yelled “Am Yisrael Chai” and threw a bomb into a crowd of pro-Palestine protesters that were chanting “Intifada.” There would be no equivocating in the condemnation of that (nor should there be). But here, because a man yelled “Allahu Akbar,” the media refuses to cover it.
The press has spent years talking about “Christian Nationalism,” often using the phrase to target Christians who are Trump supporters, but ran cover for this Islamic attack. Thankfully, the bombs did not go off, although the NYPD has confirmed that they were real. People could have been killed. But the media reported on it in a biased way because the truth conflicted with their worldview. Some in the media may even think the attempted bomb attack was justified. It’s not a stretch, considering that the Mayor’s wife liked posts justifying October 7, that his father said we shouldn’t “stigmatize” suicide bombers, and that college students across America celebrated the assassination of Charlie Kirk. This is where we are. Mamdani picked the lawyer who defended Al Qaeda and Mahmoud Khalil, a student who helped organize the Columbia University campus takeover in support of Palestine, to be his chief legal counsel.
The fact that these are our political leaders and institutional press is a reflection of how far America has fallen. America’s immigration policy over the last 30 years (and of course, more recently) has led to a lot of this, and people feel like they can’t even talk about it.
Mamdani did not win among American-born New Yorkers; Andrew Cuomo did. Given that, and Mamdani and his wife’s sympathies, rhetoric, and associations, we should question whether America’s current immigration policy is in the American interest. Mamdani himself is an immigrant, and he’s used his power to hire officials who said they hope to “impoverish the white middle class” and that “it’s important that white people feel defeated.” He’s accused the police of being murderers and called for fewer police. He’s acted on that pledge by cancelling the hiring of 5,000 new police officers. He’s pledged to close down Rikers Island, irrespective of whether the other prisons are ready to house its inmates in time. His policies are dangerous, and his views are radical.
Hopefully, the bomb attack in New York and our politicians’ and media’s response to it will be a wake-up call for New Yorkers and Americans more broadly that things have to change.
READ MORE from Joe Silverstein:
Why Conservatives Should Not Abandon Free Speech
New York City’s Sanctuary Laws Are Worse Than You Think
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