Does Bloomberg have a financial motive for backing the mosque?

Robert Spencer writing at Human Events finds a reason other than liberal saintliness for Mayor Bloomberg’s over-the-top support for the Ground Zero mosque: his financial data and news service business, which made him one of the richest men in America, has been greatly expanding its operations in Arab countries in recent years, and, while its profits elsewhere have been languishing. its profits in the Middle East have been increasing:

Imagine how quickly that revenue stream would dry up if Bloomberg sided with the people whom Rauf and other leaders of the Ground Zero mosque initiative are busy smearing as “Islamophobes” and “bigots.” When his company is doing poorly worldwide except in the Middle East, it couldn’t have been hard for Bloomberg to see on which side his bread was buttered.

The “conflict of interest,” Spencer concludes, makes Bloombergt’s “moral dudgeon over the mosque opponents appear hollow and hypocritical.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 31, 2010 08:11 AM | Send