Molotov-Style Jars Hurled at Anti-Islam Rally Outside Gracie Mansion, Six Arrested

Two glass jars wrapped in black tape, each stuffed with nuts, bolts, screws and a hobby fuse, were ignited and thrown toward a crowd of twenty anti-Islam protesters on East 87th Street at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. The first device landed in a crosswalk feet from officers, coughed smoke and flames, then burned itself out. A second jar was dropped on the west side of East End Avenue between 86th and 87th after the same assailant lit it while running, Tisch said.

Emir Balat, 18, of Pennsylvania, was captured on NYPD surveillance lighting and hurling the first jar, then retrieving a second from Ibrahim Nikk, 19, also of Pennsylvania, before dropping it, Tisch said. Video aired by Fox shows officers pinning Balat to the pavement as he shouts expletives in English and another language. Both men are in custody; no charges had been filed as of Saturday evening, and detectives were traveling to Pennsylvania to interview their families, NBC reports.

The clash began when Jake Lang—a pardoned January 6 rioter and far-right influencer—organized a noon rally titled “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City/Stop New York City Public Muslim Prayer,” drawing about twenty participants. Roughly 125 counter-protesters answered with a rally called “Run the Nazis Out of New York City/Stand Against Hate.” Police separated the groups into designated pens on East End Avenue and East 87th Street. At 12:15 p.m. a Lang supporter sprayed pepper spray into the counter-crowd and was immediately arrested, Tisch said.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor and a target of Lang’s group, was inside Gracie Mansion with his wife Rama Duwaji during the incident, police confirmed. Spokesperson Joe Calvello condemned the anti-Islam protest as “despicable and Islamophobic” and noted the timing during Ramadan. Calvello added that Mamdani has spoken with Tisch and is receiving regular threat briefings.

The NYPD Bomb Squad loaded both jars into a total-containment vessel and sent them for laboratory testing to determine whether they contained energetic material or were hoaxes. K-9 and manual sweeps of garbage cans, parked cars and building vestibules found no additional devices, Tisch said. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has joined the probe; Tisch stated there is “no indication” the incident is linked to the war with Iran.

Besides Balat and Nikk, police arrested the pepper-spray assailant and three others for disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic, bringing Saturday’s tally to six. All remain in custody while the investigation continues.