Bloomberg: Mosque Funding Not the Government's Business

"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 where do you come from, who are your parents, where did you get this money?' No!" said Bloomberg.

"It's a shame that we even have to talk about this."

He also defended the Landmark Preservation Commission's decision to deny landmark status to the building slated to be demolished to make room for the center.

"There was no redeeming value [about the building]," he said.  "Nobody pressured them; they just asked 'Is there anything redeeming that we have to save'...and they said no, nothing.  People want to use the Landmarks to accomplish their goal.  That's not what Landmarks is there for."

"I just don't think the government should tell people where they can pray and where they can build houses of worship...The more religious you are, the more you should want to keep the government out of religion, because some day, it's not going to be your religion."