DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Saudi prince who has aided the imam spearheading a proposed Islamic center near New York’s ground zero is appealing for another site not associated with the “wound” of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a report said Thursday.
In interview excerpts published by the Dubai- based Arabian Business magazine, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was quoted as saying that moving the planned mosque, health club and cultural center would respect the memory of those killed in the terrorist attacks and allow American Muslims to choose a more suitable location.
The comments are reportedly the prince’s first public views on the dispute.
Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Foundation has contributed to the group run by New York’s Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf but said he has given no funds to the planned center.
Prince Alwaleed urged the backers of the proposed Islamic center not to “agitate the wound by saying, ‘We need to put the mosque next to the 9/11 site.’ “
The Manhattan real estate developer who controls the site of the planned center and is leading the effort to build it declined to comment.
Rauf said in a written statement that the project would go forward as planned. As envisioned, the center would sit about 2 1/2 blocks from the reconstructed World Trade Center.
