An Upper East Side anti-Muslim rally led by Jan. 6 rioter and far-right influencer Jake Lang erupted into chaos as Lang and his cronies were confronted by scores of counter-protesters outside of Gracie Mansion on Saturday — the home of Mayor Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor — and a smoking improvised device was thrown, sending demonstrators scrambling for cover.
A group of counter-protesters were also pepper-sprayed as they chased down two Lang supporters, videos posted online about the wild protest show.
Saturday’s anti-Muslim protest — with Lang demanding an end to what he sees as the “Islamification of New York City” — was fueled by the ongoing war in Iran and Mamdani’s election to City Hall.
During the protest a man threw a homemade device at Lang and his crew, who were about 20-people strong, around 12:38 p.m. The object gave off some flames and smoke, but didn’t explode.
“They threw a bomb at us!” Lang and his supporters screamed as a suspect was handcuffed.
“Get your s— together!” Lang yelled at cops. “This should be a state of emergency!”
The incident was captured on NYPD ARGUS cameras, NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said later at a press conference at the scene.
“A counter-protester identified as Emir Balat, an 18-year-old man, lit and threw an ignited device toward the protest area, landing in the crosswalk of E. 87th St. and East End Ave.,” Tisch said. “Witnesses reported seeing flames and smoke as it traveled through the area before it struck a barrier and extinguished itself a few feet from police officers.”
“Mr. Balat then ran southbound on East End Ave. toward E. 86th St. and gets a second device from a man tentatively ID’ed as Ibrahim Nikk, 19 years old,” Tisch added.
Balat then lit the second device and started running with it before dropping it on the avenue’s west side between E. 86th and E. 87th Sts., she said.
A left-wing activist lights a homemade device before throwing it towards police during a protest in Manhattan on Saturday, March 7, 2026. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images)
A left-wing activist carries a homemade device during a protest organized by far-right influencer Jake Lang against alleged “Islamification” in front of Gracie Mansion, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s official residence, in Manhattan, New York on Saturday, March 7, 2026. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images)
A left-wing activist carries a homemade device during a protest organized by far-right influencer Jake Lang against alleged “Islamification” in front of Gracie Mansion, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s official residence, in Manhattan, New York on Saturday, March 7, 2026. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images)
A man is arrested after throwing a hand-made smoke device at right-wing activist Jake Lang and his supporters on Saturday, March 7, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)
A homemade smoke device thrown by a left-wing activist towards police during a protest is pictured on the ground on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York on Saturday, March 7, 2026. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images)
A man is arrested after throwing a hand-made smoke device at right-wing activist Jake Lang and his supporters on Saturday, March 7, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)
Police arrest a man on E. 87th St. in Manhattan after an incendiary device was thrown at far-right influencer Jake Lang and his supporters during a protest and counter-protest on the Upper East Side Saturday, March 7, 2026. (Rebecca White / New York Daily News)
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A left-wing activist lights a homemade device before throwing it towards police during a protest in Manhattan on Saturday, March 7, 2026. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images)
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“I just survived an assassination attempt by these two Muslim men,” Lang posted on X. “The homemade bomb they threw landed 3 feet in front of me. The detonator failed to ignite, because God is on the throne of my life.”
Cops grabbed both Balat and Nikk, but it wasn’t immediately clear if they were Muslim, as Lang accused. The man who threw the device had another one on him as cops jumped on him and wrestled him to the ground.
The NYPD Bomb Squad is examining the devices, which Tisch described as jars “a bit smaller than a football,” wrapped in black tape and packed with nuts, bolts and screws, along with a “hobby fuse” — typically used to ignite fireworks or model rockets.
Saturday evening, the NYPD was still investigating if the devices were merely smoke bombs or actual explosive that didn’t ignite, Tisch said.
“At this time, we do not yet know whether the devices were functional, improvised explosive devices or hoax devices because we don’t yet know if there was energetic material contained in them,” the top cop explained.
By the time the protest ended, at least six people were in custody, including Balat, who hurled one of the devices, Nikk, who allegedly supplied one of the devices to Balat, and the Lang supporter who pepper-sprayed counter-protesters, according to Tisch and police sources. The remaining arrests were for disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic.
“I have been in regular contact with Mayor Mamdani about the situation,” Tisch said. “As of now, there is no indication that this is related to the ongoing hostilities in Iran, but the investigation is still ongoing given the heightened-threat environment.”
Mayor Mamdani had no scheduled events Saturday. Tisch believed that Mamdani wasn’t at Gracie Mansion when Lang arrived. An email to City Hall for comment about the protest was not immediately returned.
Pro- and anti-Muslim protesters openly shoved and kicked each other during the protest, which began with Lang holding a pig roast at a cafe on E. 88th St. and York Ave. — a direct slap in the face against practicing Muslims, who aren’t allowed to eat pork.
Lang and a handful of associates then carried the roasted pig, wrapped in tin foil, down York Ave. against a growing sea of counter-protesters.
The far larger group of counter-demonstrators, numbering around 125, banged drums and called Lang and his supporters “Nazis.”
The counter-protesters screamed and lobbed eggs at Lang and his supporters as the latter demanded Mamdani be deported and screamed “USA!” back at the demonstrators.
Lang also brought a live goat to the protest, which he called “Mamdani’s second wife.”
Overwhelmed by the counter-protesters, Lang his supporters ultimately ran to a nearby U-haul truck. Demonstrators tried to prevent their escape as Lang threw himself and his goat into the truck. Protesters then chased after the truck, damaging it, as it sped off.
“It’s almost laughable how successful we were in comparison to those Nazis,” counter-protester Isabelle Pinsky, 29, told the Daily News. “There were like six of them and there were tons of us.”
Pinsky said she supports Mamdani, but “was pissed at him” for meeting with President Trump. But the mayor wasn’t what brought her to Gracie Mansion on Saturday.
“(My goal was) to come here and yell at some Nazis,” she said.
She also wasn’t too concerned about the device that was thrown.
“I saw a small box and there was a little bit of fog,” she said. “The cops reacted like it was a live bomb. The drama was a lot of drama.”
Before the chaos, one of the first counter-protesters to arrive at Gracie Mansion was 87-year-old William Voelkle. The lifetime Upper East Sider, who has only one eye, proudly walked into a cordoned-off area, his cane leading the charge.
“I’m in favor of the new mayor and against the other side that’s protesting against, I guess, what they call the Islamization of Gracie Mansion, which is ridiculous,” said the octogenarian, who saw a poster about Saturday’s protest pasted on a streetlight pole.
Voelkle hoped his “presence” would speak volumes against Lang and his cronies.
“I have a cane, and I have difficulty walking, but I felt I wanted to come,” he said. “I just hobble along.”
Lang was one of more than 1,500 people pardoned by President Donald Trump after their criminal convictions relating to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
He has since become a right-ring provocateur, holding a pro-ICE demonstration in Minneapolis, during which he claimed he was stabbed by a counter-demonstrator and was saved by his protective vest.
On Friday night, three people were taken into custody amid a clash between pro-Iranian regime demonstrators, who erected a shrine to the slain Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the former supreme leader of Iran, and anti-Khamenei protesters at Washington Square Park.
The three people arrested were given criminal court summonses and released, an NYPD spokesman said.
Lang briefly showed up in a van during that protest and committed a lewd act directed at the pro-Iranian regime protesters.
Khamenei was assassinated by an Israeli airstrike on Feb. 28 at the outset of the joint Israeli and U.S. operation intended to topple the Iranian government.
President Trump on Friday demanded the “unconditional surrender” of the Iranian regime and the installation of “acceptable” leaders as conditions to end the weeklong war with Tehran that has spread across the volatile Middle East.
With Rocco Parascandola and Barry Williams
