Some critics of the proposed Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan, including commentators on Fox News, have linked the project to terrorism by seizing on a Saudi prince’s past financial backing of the imam at the center of the controversy.

Prince Walid bin Talal of Saudi Arabia is also the second-largest shareholder of Fox News’s parent, the News Corporation, with a stake worth more than $2 billion, which was not always disclosed on Fox News.

In fact, Prince Walid, in his first public comments about the matter, says he is actually opposed to the Islamic center’s being built in downtown Manhattan.

“I have been associated with this mosque in New York, but frankly speaking, I have nothing to do with it,” he said in an interview. “I’m not for putting that mosque there.”