ST. LOUIS — Every Friday around lunch time, a line of cars drives into the empty parking lot of an empty building. Around to the back lot, the men park and enter. Over speckled blue carpet, they walk into the gym, lay out their rugs and begin their prayers.
Mir Asif is among the men who come to this St. Charles chapel each Friday, like they have for the past three years.
This illustrated a mostly quiet, largely unknown relationship between the Muslim Community Center of St. Charles and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Old Highway 94.
The community has grown to about 100 families in St. Charles County, Asif says, and as they work to secure land for a community center, they meet in this chapel that, because it's not the Mormon temple, is open to all.