what is a moorish sovereign 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 emerged in the early 1990s as an offshoot of the sovereign citizen movement, and they espouse an antigovernment doctrine in which its members claim to be part of a sovereign nation. They believe that a fictitious 1787 treaty between the United States and Morocco grants them immunity from U.S. law. Moorish sovereigns 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. They cite that treaty to claim that Moors in the US have sovereign status, meaning they would be exempt from normal laws and regulations. Moorish sovereigns believe their status as members of a sovereign nation imparts immunity from federal, state, and local authorities, and they use this perceived immunity to justify refusing to pay taxes, buy auto insurance, register their vehicles, and to defraud banks and other lending institutions. 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 involve the use of various documents and filings to harass, intimidate and retaliate against police officers, public officials, and others.