Thread by @CAIRNational

CAIR holds press conference about Hilton boycott
#BoycottHilton #SaveUyghurs
english.alaraby.co.uk/news/cair-hold…

The Council on American-Islamic Relations held a press conference Thursday morning in front of the Capital Hilton in downtown Washington, DC to discuss the beginning of an international boycott of the chain over its plans to build a hotel on the site of a destroyed Uighur mosque.

Standing at a podium in front of the main entrance to the hotel were representatives from CAIR, along with Uighur human rights organizations, who spoke about their decision to lead this international boycott amid continued crackdowns of the Uighur community.

“We are here today simply because we care about Muslim Uighurs – families and children,” Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director, said as he stood among a group of Uighur human rights activists and their supporters.

“The Chinese government has been attempting to erase and destroy the Uighurs’ culture and faith.”

This follows another press conference from last week in which CAIR and other groups delivered a letter to Hilton at its corporate headquarters in northern Virginia telling them they had one week to reverse their plans to build a hotel on a bulldozed Uighur mosque

in China’s Xinjiang province. Hilton’s plans for a hotel, announced earlier this summer, were immediately met with criticism due to its sensitive location.

Awad, who has been in contact with Hilton since the project was announced, is confident that this boycott will be effective, citing past boycotts they’ve led of large corporations who reverse course under activists’ pressure.

@The_NewArab @NihadAwad @RushanAbbas @CUyghurs @UyghurCongress @FreeUyghurNow @UyghurProject