The Jeffrey Epstein lifestyle of building your own harem of underage girls is unacceptable in America, but was the standard privilege of Muslim rulers who built their own harems and stocked them with sex slaves.
The practice, initiated by Mohammed, the founder of Islam, would have understandably made fleeing to the Middle East appealing to Epstein, and that appears to be what he was trying to do a short time before his final arrest.
Charles Schwab wired roughly $27.7 million on behalf of the convicted pedophile to a real estate broker in Morocco, as Epstein tried to purchase a palace in Marrakech 10 days before his 2019 arrest.
For its part, Morocco has no extradition treaty with the United States. Previous press has speculated that one of Epstein’s aims was to avoid arrest if new charges against him emerged.
Epstein had aimed to buy the palace for years beginning in 2011, but disputes over its price and purchase agreement got in the way. Marc Leon, of Kensington Luxury Properties, was dealing with Epstein. The terms of the deal were finalized in March 2019, according to Reuters.
Even before 2011, Epstein had connections to the north African nation. The late Virginia Giuffre wrote in her “Nobody’s Girl” memoir that he and Ghislaine Maxwell had flown her to Tangier, a city in the north of Morocco, to eye the design of luxury homes there. At that time, according to reports, Epstein wanted to design one of his homes in a Moroccan style.
In 2002, Epstein and Maxwell, on an invite from Bill Clinton, traveled to Morocco to attend the wedding of King Mohammed.
Why Morocco? It’s a notorious sex trafficking area with no extradition treaty.
Ongoing reports conducted by both the U.S. Department of State and the Moroccan government reveal that sex work, as well as sex trafficking, is still a deeply-ingrained issue in Morocco. Moroccan women, men, and children are trafficked throughout Europe and the Middle East for sexual exploitation (2014 TIP Report). Women and girls, as young as six years old, are among the most common groups trafficked to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Libya, Syria, and throughout the European continent
This reputation is partly why Morocco is not only a source of sex work but also a destination for sex tourism. While it may not be common knowledge amongst global citizens, a notable subset of the population, including foreigners and Moroccan men, are all too aware of Morocco’s “dark secrets.” Morocco’s underground industry is quite popular with men from the Persian Gulf. Foreigners, primarily from France and Spain, also make the discreet journey to the neighboring continent lured by the availability of child sex tourism
Aside from attracting beneficiaries of the trade, Morocco is also a place to engage on the other end of sex work. Unaccompanied women and children entering from Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Nigeria, and Cameroon are particularly vulnerable to trafficking networks that force women into prostitution
So you can see why Jeffrey Epstein might have been interested. Morocco is far from the worst place in the Muslim world in this regard, but the growing Muslim Brotherhood influence is likely to make matters worse. And Islamic law, which allows the sexual abuse of underage girls, would have provided him with a useful safety net. While by American standards, Epstein was a predator, by Muslim standards, he was restrained. After all he didn’t target children.
