Excerpt:
With the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop, an impassioned Mayor Bloomberg yesterday supported the development of a mosque near Ground Zero and chastised opponents for what he said was trampling on religious freedom.
"I believe that this is an important test of the separation of church and state -- as important a test as we may see in our lifetimes -- and it is critically important that we get it right," the mayor said in remarks on Governors Island -- chosen by the mayor as a symbol of religious freedom in America.
"To cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists, and we should not stand for that."