"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Thursday, August 25, 2005

MORE ON ARAB ENDOGAMOUS MATRIMONY - AKA: INBREEDING

Frontpage:
"... three main factors causing the high rates among the Arabs: infections, home births, and diseases resulting from inbreeding. About 40 percent of Muslim and Druze women and 70 percent of Bedouin women in the region were found to be married to first- or second-degree relatives. ... a 1989 study in Iraq found 53 percent of the subjects to be consanguineously married. One result is the prevalence of extended clans that lead to nepotism and lower levels of identification with the state. The clan structure is a major factor in the Arab world’s endemic corruption and lack of civil society. ... inbreeding is also a major cause of disease, another conclusion seems inescapable. Just as modern medicine recognizes genetic sources of many physical illnesses, modern psychology recognizes genetic components in many psychological problems including criminality. Presumably, a region where inbreeding is rife—and reinforced through successive generations—should also have a greater frequency of such mental ailments. ... Skeptics about attempts to reform or democratize the Arab world often point to Islam as a factor more fundamental than political practices such as elections. It seems they should also emphasize the separate problem of inbreeding.
More on this in my previous posts on the subject and related matters - HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE. Scientific studies of this serious problem HERE and HERE.

No comments: