Interbreeding and Genetic Disorder Among the Arab Population

In most cultures the practice of interbreeding/family intermarriage is considered unsavory at best- however, not to Arab cultures!

Interbreeding is well known to produce offspring with compromised physical and mental attributes; so why are Arabs still practicing this self-detrimental act?
From the Arab neighbors I have; I know that they have a very close-knit family environment; I didn't realize it was THIS close!!!barf

The practice of interfamily mariage is still relatively common among Arabs because of the structure of the Arabic soceity. Nomadic people (Bedouins) do not really have the chance to mix with others. They are organized in tribes based on common ancestry, and when it comes to marriage, the only opportunity is to inbreed (Teebi, 1993). This social structure is common in the Arabic desert in countries like Kuwait. On the other hand, among the agricultural communities, inbreeding also commonly takes place but for different reasons. There it is favored because it ensures the unity of lands. Inheritance of land by males and females is kept within the same family, and this is of great importance for peasants because small pieces of land are inefficient in agricultural economies. This pattern is common among Lebanese, Egyptians, Palestinians, and Jordanians (Klat et al., 1984).

Please take time to 'digest' the following articles- in an effort to better understand our Arab friends......

So your sources are an Islam-bashing blog, an anti-immigrant British minister, and what looks like a term paper?



The racist twits on ATS don't even try anymore.

reply to post by TheWalkingFox


It is a fact there is interbreeding within the Arab population; and did you note the U.K times article?
No I doubt it.
If you are married to your sister-I appologise

[edit on 11/16/2009 by KRISKALI777]

This may be true, however don’t forget that the elites of the world have been interbreeding for hundreds of years to keep the money in the family. One only needs to look at the family tree of the Windsors (Queen Elizabeth II of England) to see how much incest and interbreeding they have done!

So don’t be so quick to marginalise Arabs – your leaders are more interbreed than any Arab nomad family!

reply to post by WorldObserver


Hmmm.....wasn't Price Charles' father Phil 'the Greek'?

There is much evidence to support your claim, however I am not really sure this is so in modern times; although it would be interesting to see when it was phased out.
Our best teachers for this were actually the Nazi's.
They subscribed to the Eugenics Theory, and discovered the birth defects that accompany.

Marrying your sister would probably not be approved, yet cousins are definitely a different story; and from a person I know personally; are still subject to genetic defects.

If we are talking Islam for a moment (which I am sure many will consider this thread as a direct 'Beat-up' of); one can go to the online'Fatwa Center'- to verify whether there is existing Islamic Law, that may forbid their marriage....please see the example in the link below.



here is an interesting point posted on the website: Single Muslim.....

Inter-family marriage in the Koran Posted by blackcatrain on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 Comment: Actually Koran does not order marrying in the family. IMO however family marrying is a natural by-product of veiling your women. When a woman is covered, she is unable to efficiently attract the males of her choice, and the males are unable to efficiently get attracted to the females of their choice, which closes the door to a lot of possible interaction outside the family environment. So you end up with a much higher occurence of inter-family arranged marriage.

Oh, and also:

So don’t be so quick to marginalise Arabs – your leaders are more interbreed than any Arab nomad family!

They are not MY leaders; I only happen to be living in a system by where we are obligated to elect from a rotten bunch.

[edit on 11/16/2009 by KRISKALI777]

Originally posted by KRISKALI777
reply to post by TheWalkingFox

 

It is a fact there is interbreeding within the Arab population; and did you note the U.K times article?
No I doubt it.
If you are married to your sister-I appologise

[edit on 11/16/2009 by KRISKALI777]

ITS NOT A BIG DEAL....
AND INTERBREEDING DOESNOT MEAN MARRYING YOUR SISTER,IT MEANS MARRYING YOUR COUSINS ,THERE IS A DIFFERENCE...
AND its ALSO common in INDIA..
yes i believe when it comes TO genetic problem a person should drop that,and i think they will,,,nobody whats their children to have Genetic Disorder...
and there are also 2,3 cousins..
I DIDNOT FOUND IT AS GROSS...ITS COMMON AND NOT WRONG..

ARABS DONOT MARRY THEIR SISTERS AND BROTHERS...
AS FAR AS I KNOW..AND I KNOW MUCH ABOUT THIS..
ITS NOT EVEN ALLOWED IN ISLAM ..

reply to post by saima


Whatever floats your boat Saima; I did correct myself on the 'sister' crack; it was a silly retort about being labelled as a racist; that was not the intent of this thread.
Controversial,Yes.
Its amazing the responses we get on subjects that people just can't bare to talk about
If you want to marry your cousin, all the best to you- I have always preferred foreign women; give me genetic diversity any day.
Especially if it means having a higher chance of stronger, healthier children.

interbreeding is also cousins , or children of cousins. Very interesing post, it would be interesing to see a geneticist research on the subject. And yes , royal families did this for a long time too - and not without consequence . For example, the Hohenzollern dinasty in Europe .

"Interbreeding" is going to be a common occurrence in isolated populations.

Native Americans, Amish, Bedouins, African tribes, Siberian tribes, rural areas of India, Aboriginals, etc. all have higher incidences of genetic disorders than the general population because they are isolated from the...general population.

However, if these populations continue to interbreed enough they will "breed out" the genetic abnormalities as the families become larger and drift farther and farther apart. If birth rates remain roughly the same, that's when you start seeing more problems.

Supposedly 10-20 people populated the North and South American continents as they followed herds of reindeer across the Bering Straight. I haven't seen any freak Inuit or Cherokee people running around with 3 arms and a slack jaw.

And still, that does not mean that all Arabs interbreed in the way you seem to be suggesting in your OP, and I highly doubt you really know anything at all about the "Arab neighbors" you have by the way you talk about them. Interbreeding isn't an ethnicity trait, it's a combination of geography and culture.

reply to post by saima


Lets have a look at India for a moment:
here is an article on the occurrence of Depression within interbreed populations; Indian Muslim school children were chosen as the focus group for this study.


Here is an article on another study of interbreeding effects within Tamil Nadu:

Inbreeding effects on human reproduction in Tamil Nadu of South India P. S. S. RAO 1 S. G. INBARAJ 2 1 Professor of Biostatistics and Chief, Department of Biostatistics 2 Lecturer in Statistics Christian Medical College, Vellore-2, S. India ABSTRACT A prospective investigation of inbreeding effects was carried out during 1969-74 on representative samples from rural and urban populations of Tamil Nadu in southern India. Altogether, 14243 pregnancy terminations were observed. Forty-seven per cent of the rural women and 29% of urban were consanguineously married; in 80% or more of these marriages the spouses were first cousins or more closely related. The differences between the consanguineous and non-consanguineous marriages were studied with respect to total foetal loss rates, neonatal, infant and perinatal and extended first-year mortality rates; in these cases the differences were quite small and unlikely to have practical importance, though some attained statistical significance. Differences for duration-specific foetal loss, sex ratio and incidence of congenital malformations were not statistically significant. When studied alternatively in terms of the regression of the incidence rate on the inbreeding coefficient, again most regression coefficients were mostly positive but did not reach the 0.05 significance level. Taking into account the background of the population studied, the methodology adopted, and the lack of significant patterns by type of parental consanguinity, the most reasonable conclusion is that the continued practices of consanguinity over several generations have narrowed the differentials of human reproduction and of its wastage among various types of marriages based on parental consanguinity.

As this study outlines the occurrences of genetic defects were not significant, however, were more prevalent than in 'other' populations. Go figure.....

More anti-Arab propaganda. Although it is true that desert living nomads or hill dwelling Americans often were forced into incestuous relationships, guess what. Arabs live in big cities now not in the desert.

First off you don't have to generalize and think every arab famely does this because I don't think many do. It's only in those extreme countries.

Second I read in a paper once that arab boys are 7 times more likeley to be shizophrenic, this is due to the generations of inbreeding.

reply to post by KRISKALI777


You know, this is not a big story you know, if you have taken ever the history of the world in high school or even college they used to teach about caste and societies that favor inbreeding and their causes and effects, darn they used to teach that back in the 70s when I was a high schooler.

You sound like you never has heard of this before.

Originally posted by KRISKALI777
reply to post by saima

 

Whatever floats your boat Saima; I did correct myself on the 'sister' crack; it was a silly retort about being labelled as a racist; that was not the intent of this thread.
Controversial,Yes.
Its amazing the responses we get on subjects that people just can't bare to talk about

If you want to marry your cousin, all the best to you- I have always preferred foreign women; give me genetic diversity any day.
Especially if it means having a higher chance of stronger, healthier children.

listen.. FIRST OF ALL..I didnot meant i would prefer to married to my cousin..
i actually see them as big brothers...but this doesnt mean that everyone have this view.. if you are not close to your cousins or donot think of them as your brother then its not weird to have relationship with them..they are not our bro/sis..
and as far genetic disorder is concern of course it should stop and it will,they are bound to..like i said no one wants their incoming generation to have problems

so you see its not that i cant bare to talk about it,its just to me there isn't much to talk about ..
and i think it also common in nepal,go search that too..

Originally posted by KRISKALI777
reply to post by TheWalkingFox

 

It is a fact there is interbreeding within the Arab population;

Oh for god's sake. The word you're looking for is "inbreeding". Interbreeding would mean the exact opposite of what you're trying to say. You can be as racist as you want, but try to tone down the ignorance just a bit, will ya?

and did you note the U.K times article?

Sure did. That would be the "anti-immigrant UK Minister" part. You know, the guy the article is quoting and devoting itself to. Did you read it?

No I doubt it.

If you are married to your sister-I appologise

[edit on 11/16/2009 by KRISKALI777]

No, I'm not white.

Oh, what? Whaaaaat?

reply to post by KRISKALI777
[mo

Well, ugh and uck - no wonder I hate Arabs - sorry to be racist, but I do hate them.

The problem is that they are often double first cousins, (brothers marry sisters) and usually second cousins, third cousins, fourth cousins, etc., all at the same time. Pretty soon, they are as close genetically to their "cousins" as you are to your siblings. And perhaps even closer to their cousins than we are to our siblings. because these couples sometimes have only four great great grandparents between them. Or less. Most people have 16. Each. That's not racism. That's how it works out when five generations of first cousins marry.

But it's their choice. Or their parent's. Who are we to tell them what to do?

reply to post by KRISKALI777

Study on a Population in Dammam, Saudi Arabia
Dammam is the capital city of the oil-rich Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The population of Dammam is estimated to close to two-hundred thousand, and the rate of consanguineous marriages is around 52%, which is higher than the average rates of most countries and providences in the Middle East and the surrounding area. First-cousin marriages dominated all forms of marriage in Dammam accounting for 39.3% of the unions. The high rates of consanguineous marriages lead to a relatively high inbreeding coefficient of 0.0312. These high rates of inbreeding were thought to be due to beliefs, culture, and to keep property within the family.
A study was performed on the population from Dammam to see how inbreeding could affect certain aspects of offspring's health. The study first looked at "Reproductive wastage," which was defined as the number of stillbirths, childhood death's in the first month of life, and childhood deaths during the first year of life. This study showed no real significant differences in "reproductive wastage" between consanguineous and non-consanguineous marriages. Moreover, birth weights were also examined and no significant differences were seen between mean birth weights of children from consanguineous marriages and children from out breeding relationships. These results were somewhat different from other studies performed that showed inbreeding to have negative affects on offspring.
This study shows that inbreeding is not always harmful and can produce perfectly normal offspring. In fact, some investigators believe that long-term practice of inbreeding can actually benefit a population and its health by reducing deleterious or harmful genes (Al-Abdulkareen 1998). The reduction of these harmful genes is thought to be a result of an increased frequency of the deleterious gene's presence which can make it more vulnerable to selection. Therefore, selection could eliminate the harmful gene if it is given ample time to "act" on it (Hedrick 1991).

SOURCE

This report on various studies actually states that inbreeding isn't necessarily harmful to a population. As a matter of fact, the above quote is the only Arab population mentioned and subsequently also the only one which shows little effect at all, despite it's high rate of consanguineous marriages of around 52% (contrary to for example the European Royals regarding Hemophelia / Amish with regards to infant mortality etc)

I know very little on the subject but from what I could find online in scientific studies, the effects of inbreeding are not that shocking. Because in Arab nations it has been practiced much longer and the effects are less noticable perhaps this means that genetic defects can even be eliminated over time? (just throwing it out there)

In a similar way certain recessive 'defective' genes are contained within a bloodline, the same would be true for the 'strong' genes, will it not?

Although I am all for genetic diversity, I'm not so convinced that inbreeding is as bad as you claim it to be. Thanks for bringing it up though, you definately sparked my interest into the subject.

reply to post by KRISKALI777


You want to see some SERIOUS inbreeding look no further than some diaspora ultra Orthodox Jews especially those (originally) from small communities like Yemen, Tunisia, Iraq etc etc.

I saw an extended family limping to Temple only a couple of days ago in Sydney. Ugh!! Looked like potatoes. No bones, lazy eyes etc etc.

Another thing religion has to answer for!