St. Louis Mosque Gets Unexpected Help In Its Rezoning Fight

Today's St. Louis Post Dispatch reports that after the St. Louis County Council rejected a rezoning request by the Islamic Community Center to permit it to build a mosque on property it owns that is zoned only for commercial use, the grandson of a St. Louis area rabbi has joined in the fight to overturn Council's decision. The county's Planning Commission had recommended approval of the rezoning, but in April Council (by a 4-3 vote) surprising rejected the recommendation that the congregation, made up largely of Bosnian immigrants, be permitted to build on the site. That led the mosque to sue under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Rick Isserman, who is now helping the mosque, says that his grandfather, Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman waged a similar, and successful, battle 48 years ago to move his synagogue, Temple Israel, from the city to suburban Creve Couer. Temple Israel's current rabbi, Mark Shook, speculated that Council was concerned with losing the tax revenue from the property if it rezoned it to permit a tax-exempt religious institution to be built on it.