GREENFIELD — Patrick Bensen grew up in Greenfield to parents who taught at Eaglebrook School, a family that mostly traced its roots back to Ireland.
It wasn’t until he went to college, at Harvard University, in the days just after Sept. 11, 2001, that he began to read the Quran, with the literary interest of an English major as well as someone intrigued by Middle East history. The language drew him in.
“I just happened to encountered the Quran and some of the story around it,” he says. “It’s this text that doesn’t really have a peer, as far as the level of complexity and richness of meaning, and the amount of study and scholarship that’s gone into it.”
Within a few years, he’d converted to Islam. Intent on finding organic, halal food, he began farming in Granby, producing organic poultry, eggs, beef, goat and lamb. And in 2009, he visited the Hampshire Mosque, which rented space in Amherst’s Carriage Shops.
“I didn’t know any Muslims,” said Bensen. “At the Hampshire Mosque, I started meeting people across a range of cultures,” several of whom would spend time poring over the Quran with him in Arabic.
“They would just sit and read for me … to help me read for an hour a few times a week,” says Bensen, who began reading and reciting the holy book in Arabic, although he admits he can’t really speak the language.
A former president of the mosque, Bensen — a freelance marketing consultant who edits a blog, “Beyond Halal,” about the intersection of food, ethics and Islam — guesses there were maybe 100 families or individuals at the mosque, many of them graduate students, college faculty members and area professionals from places like Pakistan, Abu Dhabi, and beyond.)
It was at Hampshire Mosque that he met his wife, Busrah, who grew up in Pittsfield. Her parents had emigrated from Palestine in the 1970s. They were married in 2010. Together, with their two sons, Zach and Yusef, they attend Friday prayers at the mosque, which in 2015 moved from the Carriage Shops and has been holding its noontime service at Jones Library while waiting completion of its new home in the former Adventure Outfitters building on Route 9 in Hadley.
“It’s on the verge of being used,” he says of the mosque’s new home, which the religious community bought in 2004. “We knew it was going to be a big project to renovate it. It’s taken a few years, and we had to fundraise more.”
With over $1 million already raised and spent to acquire and renovate the property — nearly half of which will be leased out as retail space — another $85,000 is needed to re-pave the parking lot. A “neighbors together” fundraising event Sunday from 4 to 7 p.m. is planned at Wesley United Methodist Church, 98 North Maple St. in Hadley, co-sponsored by groups including the Interfaith Council of Franklin County and Traprock Peace Center
Sunday’s fundraiser will include a silent auction, an “international feast” prepared by members of the mosque, brief performances by the Amherst Area Gospel Choir and the BeitAhavah Singers as well as interfaith prayers.
Naz Mohamed, a member of the Hampshire mosque, who formerly taught at Leverett Elementary School and ran a Union 28 early childhood program for Erving, Leverett, Shutesbury and Swift River schools, says the new building, which had to be entirely gutted, will be used for five daily prayers and be a space for Sunday school, and a lot of community activities, including interfaith gatherings.
“The mosque community has been really overwhelmed by the interfaith collaborative effort,” Mohamed said, under which a GoFundMe online campaign is among the efforts that have already helped raise half the $85,000 needed.
“Before we even officially open our doors, this interfaith fundraising effort is an act of solidarity and support put into action,” Mohamed said. “It’s integral to living our faith that we have strong relationships with our neighbors built on kindness, generosity, mutual respect, and helpfulness. These are values that are well-established in this community, and we humbly look forward to many more opportunities to continue to build community in our new home.”
With the nearest other mosque in West Springfield, Bensen said area Muslims — including the handful living around Franklin County — mostly offer their five daily prayers, including one before sunrise and another after dark at night — at home. But the Hadley Mosque will provide a place for the Islamic community to gather.
Peter Blood of Mount Toby Friends Meeting in Leverett has been spearheading the event, “to see if others of us could help them over this final hurdle.” adding, “We are living in times when many are attempting to demonize and scapegoat Muslims and other immigrants in this country. It is critical for others in the community who are not being directly targeted to stand up and support those put at risk by hatred and fear. It is the least that we can do to try and reclaim our country and make it a home and a safe place for all of us who live here.”
On the Web: www.hampshiremosque.org
www.gofundme.com/2q2fzjw
www.beyondhalal.org