"I am against putting the mosque in that particular place. And I'll tell you why. For two reasons: first of all, those people behind the mosque have to respect, have to appreciate and have to defer to the people of New York, and not try to agitate the wound by saying 'we need to put the mosque next to the 9/11 site'," he was quoted as saying by the 'Arabian Business'.
"I heard and saw a lot of news about me being associated with it and this is all wrong. We did not finance this thing," he added.
"The wound is still there. Just because the wound is healing you can’t say 'let’s just go back to where we were pre-9/11'. I am against putting the mosque there out of respect for those people who have been wounded over there," he was quoted as saying.
The Prince also warned that Dubai's property market faces substantial further falls, and will take several years to reach its bottom.
"There are new buildings coming out, I think we have not seen the bottom in real estate [in Dubai], there are years to come. I don't believe you are there [the bottom] yet because more supply is coming," he said.