Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
A number of Muslim organizations in United States of America calls for a boycott of Hilton for planning to build a hotel on the mosque site Uighur in Xinjiang which was destroyed by the Chinese government.
“Today, we are announcing a global boycott campaign against Hilton,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the organization’s Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Awad said that CAIR had also indirectly negotiated with the hotel group to cancel the hotel development plan. However, the conversation was not successful.
“You and I have the option of choosing where to go on your trip, or having a business meeting, or having an event, a wedding or a banquet,” Awad said.
In a statement on site Officially, CAIR called this development plan a violation of human rights that contributed to the destruction of the faith and culture of the Uighur ethnic group.
“CAIR believes Hilton must be on the right side by announcing it will cancel this project and cease any operations in the Uighur region of China, until its government ends the persecution of millions of innocent people,” CAIR wrote.
Calls for a boycott came after rumors circulated that Hilton was planning to build a hotel on land where a Uighur mosque once stood in Xinjiang. The Chinese government demolished the mosque using a bulldozer in 2018.
In July, the US Congress asked Hilton Worldwide to stop the project.
A Hilton spokeswoman said they were not involved in selecting the hotel’s location.
According to him, his company’s franchising model means that their involvement in property development and management is limited.
“However, we can confirm that in 2019, an independent Chinese group purchased vacant land through a public auction, with commercial development plans including a hotel,” he said.
The spokesman later said, “Hilton was not involved in site selection.”
China continues to be in the spotlight for taking away the rights of the Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang. Between 2017 and 2020, some 16,000 mosques in 900 locations in Xinjiang were demolished.
Chinese officials say that by 2021, no religious sites in Xinjiang have been destroyed or targeted by forcible restrictions.
During Ramadan last April, Reuters visited some of the mosques there. Some were partially destroyed, the rest were already razed to the ground.
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