New York:
Rima Fakih, the first Muslim to win the Miss USA title, has said that though she supports the constitutional rights on the freedom of religion she doesn't favour building a mosque near Ground Zero.
"I totally agree with President (Barack) Obama with the statement on the constitutional rights of freedom of religion," Fakih said in the interview with Inside Edition.
However, the 24-year-old who will be competing in the Miss Universe pageant next week, favoured an alternate location for building the mosque.
"I also agree that it shouldn't be so close to the World Trade Center. We should be more concerned with the tragedy than religion," said Fakih, who is of Lebanese origin.
Earlier this month, President Obama came out in support of religious freedom enshrined in the constitution.
"Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country," Obama said. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable."
Obama later clarified that his remarks were only related to the rights of the American-Muslims but did not address whether the mosque should be built on disputed site.
"I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there," he explained.
Polls suggest that the majority of Americans inside and out of New York, both Republican and Democrats, are against a mosque being constructed near the World Trade Centre, which was attacked by terrorists.
Prominent Republicans like Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani, and Newt Gingrich have already spoken out against the mosque as have Democrats like Senate majority leader Harry Reid.
Kuwaiti-born Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the developer of the 100 million dollar Muslim community centre, which will include the mosque, insists that it is "a center for all New Yorkers" and "its purpose is to interweave America's Muslim population into the mainstream society."
Daisy Khan, a co-founder of the mosque said that she and her husband Imam Rauf will not back down in the ongoing debate to build near the site of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Centre.
"We have to convince people that not all Muslims are extremists. We have to educate them on being able to distinguish between us and on the issue of Islamophobia.
This is a bigger fight," she said, in an interview with The Washington Post.
"This is a defining moment for us," Khan said.