In the state of Maryland, south of the US capital Washington, a dispute over a shooting range in Welcome, Charles County took an unexpected turn when an owner declared his “Moorish American citizenship”. It all started with complaints about gunfire heard at a property on Fire Tower Road, says The Washington Post.
As county officials have taken action, deeming the site an illegal shooting range in September, a group of “Moorish Americans” (American Moors), an offshoot of the extremist “sovereign citizens” movement whose members believe themselves safe from US legal and financial systems, said the property was “protected under the consular jurisdiction of Morocco.” The group claimed that the dispute over the ownership in question “was subject to the terms of an 1836 treaty between the United States and Morocco.”
A property “under Moroccan consular jurisdiction”
To do so, “strange” documents were filed, including a “legal order” signed by a man identifying himself as Lamont Maurice El, who presented himself as “consul general of the Consular Court of Morocco in the Republic of the State of Maryland”. These documents were “adorned with symbols such as the star and the crescent and the “eye of Providence” placed in a triangle which appears on the back of the dollar bill”, one describes. Lamont Maurice El, who is part of the “Moorish Americans,” however, had “some experience with the Maryland court system.” In 2013, he was convicted of multiple counts related to his attempt to illegally occupy a 12-bedroom mansion in the city of Bethesda.
The group has thus convinced the owner of the disputed land that he “should consider himself exempt from county legal action” and that he will be able to open the range because “security will be in full force (…) under Moroccan consular jurisdiction”.
Eventually the owner and another Moorish American, who tried to intervene when Charles County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a third member of the group, were arrested. While he is pursued by several charges, the man finally decided that there will be no more shootings on his property, realizing that his “Moorish citizenship” does not protect him from American laws.
The Washington Post recalls that Moorish Americans “believe themselves the heirs of a fictional empire which they say stretched from the present-day kingdom of Morocco to North America” and “claim the same protections from American lawsuits as those granted to foreign citizens”.
Starting in the 20th century, a group of African Americans founded a new religious organization, emanating according to them from Islam, but which was in reality intended to be an influence of multiple beliefs. They referred to themselves as Moors in reference to their supposed country of origin, Morocco.
In 1913, Noble Drew Ali aka Timothy Drew, born to a Moroccan Muslim father and a Cherokee mother, founded the Moorish Science Temple of America. To aspire to membership in this religious organization, the faithful had to be of Moorish origin and more particularly from the “Moroccan Empire”. But after his death in 1929, the group split into three rival factions.
Last year, an armed group claiming to be part of the “Rhode Island Rise of the Moors” movement has made headlines after being involved in a half-day confrontation with American police in the smallest state in the United States. Generally refusing to pay taxes or obey gun laws, they declared themselves “foreign nationals” traveling under the terms of the 1836 Treaty of Friendship between Morocco and the United States which “exempts them from following American laws.