In 1839, sultan Abd al-Rahman ibn Hisham of Morocco sent a pair of lions to the US consulate in Tangier as a present for President Martin Van Buren. The gift was impossible to refuse and was shipped to the US by 1840.
Although the law allows registration of religious groups as associations in Morocco, some minority religious groups reported the government delayed or rejected their registration requests, the United States Department of State said in its 2023 Religious Freedom Report.