December 20, 1777, the kingdom of Morocco became the first to recognize the United States of America as an independent and sovereign nation. We talk with Anouar Majid, Director of the University of New England's Center for Global Humanities, and the Tangier Global Forum, about the long connections between Morocco and the United States. Did you know that the only American historical site outside the United States is the Tangier American Legation Museum? We discuss this and other issues with one of the leading scholars of the relationship between the United States and the Islamic World, and editor of the Tingis , and author of Freedom and Orthodoxy and other works.