Director: Muslim worshipers are traumatized

The Portales Islamic Center is a place of peace, tolerance, and community. That's according to Ahmed Benssouda, the center's director. But now, the people who love this place are heartbroken and timid as they're forced to travel to Clovis for worship.

Vandals have stripped the Muslim community in this region of their sense of security because of constant break-ins that have left thousands of dollars in damage to the Portales mosque, Benssouda said. But more poignantly, he said they're suffering lasting emotional trauma.

Benssouda said the Islamic Center in Portales has been open since the late 1970s-early '80s. It caters to international students coming to Portales to attend Eastern New Mexico University and families stationed at Cannon Air Force Base, but also to anyone passing through the area looking for a place of worship and peace. He has been the center's director for more than a decade and has lived in Portales since 2006.

Benssouda said the Islamic Center and the Muslim faith are based on acceptance and love. He added that a common misconception of Muslims is that they are uptight and strict. He said they may be in places like Afghanistan but not in the West.

"We are simple people ... we just love everybody and love to laugh and joke around like having a good time," he said.

Another misconception he's encountered: "We do believe in Jesus ... (if) we don't believe in Jesus, then we are not considered as a Muslim," he said.

Vandalism has been extensive

Mosque worship leaders say the building has been vandalized five separate times in recent weeks and forced to close.

The damage is extensive. Graffiti of hate speech is in almost every room, with holes in the wall, glass shattered, drawers and cabinets emptied onto the floor, a flooded toilet that has soaked the carpet, a Quran and posters of Quran scriptures destroyed.

Benssouda said the electricity has been shut off because vandals tampered with wiring in the ceiling. There is evidence of a small fire in one of the fluorescent bulb sockets in the kitchen. The vandals got into the building's attic, and Benssouda said he needed to get up there to double-check they didn't destroy anything else. The vandals also messed with the plumbing in the walls and the water heater.

Benssouda said he was visited by Portales police and the FBI on Wednesday, who came to assess the damage and take a record of the scene. Benssouda said he wishes this would have been taken more seriously before multiple media reports brought attention late last month.

"They are supposed to take it seriously the first time something like this happens," he said.

Benssouda said police informed him on Wednesday they do have one suspect, though it wasn't clear whether anyone had been charged with vandalizing the building. District Attorney Quentin Ray said he believes the suspect is a juvenile but had no additional information on Friday. Portales police did not respond to questions from The News.

Benssouda said the vandalism began after he removed guard dogs from the property due to neighbor complaints.

Some have suggested the mosque was not targeted for the destruction, but may have been kids pulling a prank on a house they thought was abandoned, Benssouda said. But he said the hate speech graffiti on the walls and the way the doors were busted open to get in suggests otherwise.

"This is not something that kids just did for fun," Benssouda said, pointing to a backdoor of the building where the vandals broke in, removing the door almost completely and exposing the deadbolt and door handle lock. Benssouda has to keep the door secure with a washing machine for now.

The break-ins were not motivated by burglary, either, he said. The mosque had multiple laptops and other electronics that were not taken, just destroyed. There is also an industrial carpet cleaner that was not stolen.

Some worshipers feel unsafe

Benssouda said there are about 40 members of his congregation, including children.

One of those members Abdelmounaim El medraoui, originally from Morrocco, has lived in New Mexico for seven years. When he first arrived in the state, he lived in Portales for about six months. Now he lives in Tucumcari.

Until recently, El medraoui traveled weekly to Portales for worship at the Islamic Center because Tucumcari does not have a mosque. He said the vandalism is devastating because he now feels unsafe there.

"I used to go to Portales. This was my concern because what happened to that mosque makes me like (feel) unsafe a little bit. I'm not gonna say it's totally unsafe. But yeah, I feel like I'm uncomfortable now to go to Portales. I'd rather go to Clovis," El medraoui said.

Still, El medraoui plans to travel to Portales this week to help clean up the mosque and start repairing the damage.

The Golden Mosque in Clovis was also vandalized in 2019, Benssouda said, with hate speech graffiti.

Benssouda said that since living in eastern New Mexico, he has faced prejudice from people saying they don't work with Muslims. He even had someone pat him down for bombs once. He added that one of his children has faced bullying at school, with other schoolchildren calling his child a terrorist. His children were born in America; their mother is American and Caucasian.

"There are good people – (a) majority -- they are very, very nice people. But at the same time, you still got to deal with some percentage of people that ... discriminate (against) you," Benssouda said.

'Some beautiful people ...'

Benssouda said a recent outpouring of support from the community's non-Muslim people has been touching.

"There are some beautiful people and good people," he said. When (they heard) what happened to the Portales Islamic Center, like most of the community, they reached out to me, they reached out and (tried to see) what they can do to help, and they told me that they want to come clean," Benssouda said. Other members of the Portales-Clovis community organized a GoFundMe page to raise money for the damages.

Benssouda said there is something positive to take away from the vandalism: the community came together to help regardless of race or religion.

"This is the beauty of America, the diversity. And it's been diverse for a long time. And that's what makes America is ... everybody's welcomed. And I feel that solidarity with what happened in the Islamic Center from the community. It's heart-touching," he said.

El medraoui said one of the things he loves most about the United States is that everyone is free to practice their religion without persecution.

"We are all human beings ... everybody has his right to practice his religion, you know, whether he's Christian or Jewish or whatever. And that's a cool thing people can do here in the United States because it's a country of freedom," El medraoui said.