Hasel Afshar moved from Iran to the US seven years ago as a refugee. In that time, he’s had his share of run-ins with xenophobes who’s yelled at him to go back to his country or threatened him with violence.
But none of that prepared him for what greeted him when he came home earlier this week.
The house in Troutdale, Oregon, had been ransacked and laced with graffiti.
The vandals smashed his door with an ax, slashed his furniture, and spray-painted graffiti everywhere.
He found “terrorist” written across the cabinets, “kill you” and “Muslim” scrawled on a bedroom wall, and “die” sprayed on a mirror.
Deputies said they also found a note weighed down with seven bullets arranged in the shape of a cross.
“The funny thing, I’m not Muslim,” Afshar told KPTV.
Afshar is Baha’i, said the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“I was scared when I saw this stuff,” Afshar told the affiliate. “Really scared.”
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office has launched an investigation and have not released any information on possible suspects. It said the incident has the hallmarks of a bias crime.
For his part, Afshar he wishes he could talk to the vandals about their motivation.
“You can hate me, that’s your problem, but we can go and sit and talk about it, why you hate me, and maybe you just change your mind,” he told the affiliate.