The New York Times angled a story around an alleged Islamic terrorist’s early teenage years when he sold shoes outside of a Wawa store in an article published Thursday.
The Times published the headline, “At 13, He Was Selling Sneakers. At 18, He’s Facing Terror Charges,” which described Emir Balat’s jobs before he threw an improvised explosive device (IED) at demonstrators in New York City on Saturday. The article described how Balat programmed bots to buy pricey sneakers and then sell them to a dealer, and described him as a “budding entrepreneur.”
“To the extent that Emir Balat was known at all in the northern suburbs of Philadelphia, it was as a budding entrepreneur,” the article began. “When he was only 13, he programmed bots to buy pricey sneakers the moment they dropped. His father would drive him to the parking lot of a Wawa convenience store, where he would sell them to a sneaker dealer, sometimes making more than $200 a pair. He told people he was investing in crypto.”
The article also described how Balat got “rave reviews” from customers when he began selling contractor supplies online.
After describing Balat’s work ethic, the Times wrote about Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi’s purchase of slow-burning fuses, their trip to Manhattan and their launch of the attack against a small demonstration outside of Gracie Mansion, the residence of Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Both Balat and Kayumi told authorities that ISIS inspired them to launch the attack in order to defend Islam against Jake Lang, who organized the anti-Muslim demonstration outside of Mamdani’s residence.
Authorities charged Balat and Kayumi with attempting to support the Islamic State and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday that the homemade bomb contained triacetone triperoxide (TATP), which has been linked to ISIS in past terror attacks.
Footage of the incident showed a man appearing to yell “Allahu Akbar” when Balat threw the device.
Mamdani said Monday that the incident was “rooted in white supremacy” and “anti-Muslim bigotry.” The attack is being investigated as “an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism.”
CNN portrayed the alleged terrorists as two teens from Pennsylvania who happened to find themselves in their current predicament in a now-deleted X post from Tuesday. Abby Phillip, a host at the network, apologized Wednesday after she falsely stated that the alleged terrorists targeted Mamdani during a Tuesday segment of “CNN NewsNight.”
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