what is a moorish citizen

Moorish sovereign citizens are a subset of the sovereign citizen movement, which is a loose group of litigants, anti-government activists, tax protesters, financial scammers, and conspiracy theorists based in the United States. Moorish sovereigns are Black adherents who hold pseudo-historical beliefs specific to African-American heritage. They claim to be descendants of Moors who inhabited the Kingdom of Morocco, which signed a Treaty of Peace and Friendship with the US in 1786 that officially recognized America as a sovereign nation. Moorish sovereigns cite that treaty to claim that Moors in the US have sovereign status, meaning they would be exempt from normal laws and regulations. They believe they are bound mainly by maritime law, not the law of the places where they live. Moorish sovereign citizens engage in the same criminal activities as “traditional” sovereign citizens do, including crimes of violence, scams and frauds, and so-called “paper terrorism” tactics, which typically involves the use of various documents and filings to harass, intimidate and retaliate against police officers, public officials, and others. While most sovereigns in the US are White, there exists a subset within the movement known as ‘Moorish’ sovereigns.