PETITION TO
This mosque was destroyed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Hotan, East Turkestan (known as Xinjiang), and Hilton Hotels is constructing a Hampton Inn Hotel on the sacred site. Since 2017, an estimated 16,000 mosques have been demolished or damaged by CCP.
Step 1: Petition to Stop Hilton Profiting from the Uyghur Genocide
Christopher J. Nassetta
CEO, Hilton
7930 Jones Branch Drive
McLean, Virginia 22102
Dear Mr. Christopher J. Nassetta,
We ask you to immediately stop the construction of the Hampton By Hilton hotel project in Hotan. Building a hotel on the site of a destroyed mosque is an insult to the 1.2 billion Muslims around the world.
The mosque was destroyed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Hotan, East Turkestan (known as Xinjiang), and Hilton Hotels is constructing a Hampton Inn Hotel on the sacred site. Since 2017, an estimated 16,000 mosques have been demolished or damaged by CCP. Mosques are protected under Chinese Law and under the United Nations Resolution L54, but this hasn’t stopped the CCP from destroying them.
According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom, the destruction of religious sites is a violation of human rights.
You must be aware of the existence of Chinese concentration camps where 1-3 million Uyghurs and other Turkic people are detained, suffering from crimes against humanity, forced labor, and genocide in the Xinjiang region, the historic Eastern Turkestan, which like Tibet is occupied by China.
The United States, home of Hilton Worldwide Holdings, recognizes the Uyghur Genocide.
As reported by The Telegraph:
The site where a mosque once stood in the heart of Hotan in China’s Xinjiang region is now under construction to become a commercial tower block that will house a Hampton by Hilton hotel, the Telegraph can reveal.
Hilton claims in its human rights policy statement that it “recognizes that companies have a responsibility to respect human rights across their operations. Hilton Worldwide is committed to respecting human rights, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and endeavors to conduct business operations in a manner that is free from complicity in human rights abuses.”
Hilton must stand by its own principles and stop profiting from genocide.
Additionally, we demand that Hilton divests from the region as recommended by 220+ human, labor, and Uyghur rights organizations in the Coalition To End Uyghur Forced Labor.
cc Caroline Meledo, Director of Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights at Hilton Hotels
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Why you should sign the petition to Stop Hilton
Hilton with its 18 brands such as DoubleTree, Waldorf Astoria, Hamptons Inn, and Embassy Suites is a name one does not associate with genocide. Destruction of mosques and the Uyghur way of life is complicity in genocide. The mosque destroyed in Hotan is being replace with a Hilton hotel.
Xinjiang’s disappearing heritage was especially stark in Hotan’s city centre, where the Telegraph visited nine former mosque locations. Most, like the planned Hilton hotel site, had been completely demolished and converted for uses including a car park and a grassy knoll with Communist Party propaganda signs proclaiming, “Long live China’s great ethnic unity!”
THE TELEGRAPH
In some instances, the government has demolished mosques in the name of development. When Times reporters visited the city of Hotan in southern Xinjiang last year, we found a new park where satellite images showed there had been a mosque until late 2017.
We found four other sites in the city where mosques once stood that were now new parks or bare patches of ground, and one mosque that was half-torn down.
THE NEW YORK TIMES