Bloomberg: I Don’t Care Where Mosque $ Comes From

Mayor Bloomberg said he doesn't know where the planners of the proposed mosque and Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero will get the money to build -- and he doesn't care.

"People say, well, you know, 'Do they have the money? Can they raise the money? Where does it come from?' " the mayor said Friday on his WOR-AM radio show with John Gambling.

"I don't know, and government shouldn't -- do you really want every time they pass the basket in your church and you throw a buck in, they run over and say, 'Okay, now, you know, where do you come from? Who are your parents? Where'd you get this money?'

"No! This is just not -- and I can't for the life of me -- a handful of people ought to be ashamed of themselves."

Bloomberg gave an impassioned defense of the rights of the Park51 Islamic center this week after the Landmarks Preservation Commission gave the founders permission to tear down the existing structure on Park Place.