Arab World Afflicted by Genetic Inbreeding

Up to half of all Emirati marriages are between relatives, with 54 per cent of married couples in Al Ain being relatives, compared to 32 per cent in Abu Dhabi and 40 per cent in Dubai.

Saudi Arabia, has perhaps the highest rate of intermarriage, with up to two thirds of all marriages occurring between relatives.

One of the costs of the type of close inbreeding that is common in the Arab and Muslim worlds, is genetic disease. Arabs and Muslims often inbreed due to tribal and clannish distrust of outsiders. Western medical and civil authorities need to understand that when such third-world peoples move to the first world, they often bring such dysfunctional customs with them.

Saudi Arabia has the highest rate of birth defects in the Gulf, with around 80 babies out of every 1,000 born with a disorder.

In the UAE, Kuwait and Oman, 70 to 79 children in every 1,000 are born with a birth defect.

Sudan has the highest rate in the world at 82 per 1,000, while France has the world’s lowest rate, at 39 per 1,000.

Birth defects have been closely linked to marriages between cousins and relatives, a common practice throughout the region and estimated to account for 35 to 50 per cent of all weddings.

Such traditions can increase the number of carriers of recessive genes, leading to higher rates of birth defects. Selective and environmental factors, including a lack of public awareness about how to prevent such conditions, also compound the problem.

Autosomal recessive disorders, in which two copies of the gene must mutate for a person to be affected, form an overwhelming proportion of genetic disorders in Arab patients in the UAE, according to CAGS, which says high rates of marriage between relatives are a leading contributor to the condition.

An affected person usually has unaffected parents who both carry a mutated gene. _CBT

Arab and Muslim countries typically lack the type of scientific and biomedical infrastructure to deal with problems that a backward culture creates.

The dysfunctionality of third world customs tend to add synergistically with western dysfunctionalities--unfortunately--when third world muslims migrate to more modern western nations. This is why one is seeing problems of growing numbers of clannish third world street gangs within European cities, inflating crime statistics and reducing overall trust and safety within the society. European prisons are filling with these dysfunctional products of a backward culture, as European health care systems begin to feel the brunt.

US President Bush believed at one time that it was possible to bring the modern world to the Arab world, so that perhaps the worst parts of the Arab world would not come to the modern world. I wonder if he still believes in that optimistic idea?