By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Mayor Michael Bloomberg does not care who donates money to build the 13-story mosque and community center near Ground Zero.
Opponents of the project have worried money could come from foreign groups with extremist links, but Bloomberg brushed off that concern while speaking his weekly radio show Friday morning.
“People say, ‘Well do they have the money? Can they raise the money? Where does it come from?’” Bloomberg said.
“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 where to do you come from, who are your parents, where did you get this money?’ No.”
“People ought to be ashamed of themselves,” Bloomberg added.
The backers of the Islamic center, called Park51, say they have not yet begun raising money, but that has not stopped Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio from demanding that his opponent, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, investigate the nonprofit’s books.
Bloomberg delivered a rousing defense of Park51 on Governors Island last week, after the city Landmarks Preservation Commission cleared the way for the project to rise.
A conservative group sued to overturn the landmarks vote the following day, but Bloomberg predicted Friday the suit “will be thrown out by the courts right away.”
Bloomberg also criticized the religious people who are speaking out against the project.
“The more you believe, the more religious you are, the more you should want to keep government out of religion,” Bloomberg said, “because someday it’s not going to be your religion.”
