I spent six weeks in Marrakech over the summer. The attitude among the locals is basically this: it you're a Muslim, you're "one of them" so you don't get scammed. If you're not a Muslim, you're fair game for everyone from small boys on the street to shop owners to obvious thugs to sex scams.

This is especially the case if you're a non-Muslim woman. I can't count the number of times men made crude comments to my gf. On several occasions shopkeepers sexually assaulted her with me standing right there!

I've been to some shitty places in my time, but none of them have been quite so horrible as Marrakech. Having said that, I also spent a couple of weeks in Fez and that was lovely — completely different atmosphere and attitude.

Edit: Just to be clear, I don't think this attitude is necessarily a Muslim thing. I think it's more to do with poverty and tourism. I live in Eastern Europe at the moment and there are plenty of scams here too, although not at the same level.

Moroccan here and I found the first paragraph of your comment appaling. So you spent 6 weeks in a foreign country and that makes you now somehow a "subject matter expert in how moroccan think".

> "The attitude among the locals is basically this: it you're a Muslim, you're "one of them" so you don't get scammed. If you're not a Muslim, you're fair game for everyone from small boys on the street to shop owners to obvious thugs to sex scams."

Thank you for letting us know about your insight. I'm not saying you didn't experience this, I'm saying that you are making a dangerous generalization about all people of morocco/muslims. This scams by the way target wealthy people from the gulf, this has nothing to do with you being the "infidel" and being fair game. There are good and bad people everywhere. Your comment hints that moroccan only care about other muslims and would scam others because it doesn't matter. Well I can tell you it matters, we are human beings. Islam as any other Abrahamic religion, does not give you a free card cheating/scaming people just because they are not muslims.

I understand how what I said might offend you, but I clearly said It was more related to poverty and tourism than Islam and that my experience of Fez was completely different, so I wasn't generalizing about Muslims or Morrocans.

But I stand by what I said: Marrakech, particularly the Medina is occupied by scam artists, thieves, thugs, and scum of every stripe. Perhaps this is based on an unusual and unrepresentative experience, but after six weeks of being harassed, conned, and abused I'm unlikely to return to find out different.

Your contention that they treat everyone this way, regardless Of race, religion, or nationality, isn't comforting.

>I clearly said It was more related to poverty and tourism than Islam

No you didn't.

>But I stand by what I said: Marrakech, particularly the Medina is occupied by scam artists, thieves, thugs, and scum of every stripe. Perhaps this is based on an unusual and unrepresentative experience, but after six weeks of being harassed, conned, and abused I'm unlikely to return to find out different.

And that is fine with me, it's a tourist city and you would find similar cities around the world. I personally tend to avoid Marrakesh and Casablanca.

> Your contention that they treat everyone this way, regardless Of race, religion, or nationality, isn't comforting.

I still don't think you understood what I was saying. You are generalizing and tend to jump to conclusions quickly. I said scammers generally don't care about your religion, they only care about the money. Which happens surprise suprise everywhere in the world.

When you say "sexually assault" are you referring to them grabbing her behind or something else? The term is very broadly used.

They're very touchy to start with. To take one example, I was looking at a leather bag (tip: never buy leather in Marrakech unless you like the smell of bird shit). The shopkeeper maneuvered us so we were facing each other, and then shoved his hand down the back of her jeans (I don't want to be more graphic) where I couldn't see what was happening, chatting away to me all the time.

She looked extremely uncomfortable and asked to leave the store, so we did. It's an awkward situation because when you're in the Medina you're surrounded by dozens of young guys who are related to the shopkeeper and you can't really kick up a stink about it.