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Olde Tyme Religion
Arabs suffer from high rate of gene disorders
2009-09-23
[Al Arabiya Latest] Despite the fact that it is widely practiced across the Middle East, marrying within the family might not be such a good idea, according to a new report published on Tuesday.
Marrying your first cousin isn't significantly different genetically from marrying your sister.
The report by the Dubai-based Center for Arab Genomic Studies (CAGS) said Arabs have one of the highest rates of genetic disorders mostly related to consanguinity, or marriages between close relatives.
Also explains why so many Arabs are downright funny looking...
The genetic research institute found that around 63 percent of the genetic conditions found in Arabs, who often practice marriage between relatives, were related to consanguinity and warned the numbers were likely to rise as more research is conducted and more disorders discovered.
Things like buck teeth, hemophilia, various skin disorders, and of course some pretty interesting mental conditions, many of them involving the ability to believe five impossible things before breakfast. Bonking your head on the ground five times a day makes it even worse.
In the United Arab Emirates, a country with the fifth highest rate of inter-family marriages, there are currently over 250 types of genetic diseases, the second-highest after neighboring Oman. "Prevalence of genetic diseases is very high in the UAE compared to the rest of the world, so it is a major concern. It also puts a lot of burden on the government financially. We need to prepare strategies with a special focus on genetics," Dr. Ghazi Omar Tadmouri, Assistant Director of CAGS, said in a statement. CAGS has so far completed studies in the UAE, Oman and Bahrain and plans to continue extensive research throughout the Arab world.
Posted by:Fred

#18  "if you are a young man with feelings of inadequacy"

Which pretty much sums up all the men in predominantly moslem countries.

Oh, wait - it's not an inferiority complex. They really are inferior in the pants department....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2009-09-23 18:47  

#17  Arranged marriages defeats natural selection. Let young people pick their own mates. Let them decide to whom they are attracted. It's much healthier that way. But then, if you are a young man with feelings of inadequacy that might not be the way you want to go.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2009-09-23 18:25  

#16  Marrying my brother? Eeeeewwwwwww.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2009-09-23 18:19  

#15  I can't believe Mucky didn't make the rogue's gallery
Posted by: Jomomp Borgia1635   2009-09-23 17:00  

#14  For reference here are some links concerning a case study on inbreeding among non-Arabs:

This is a description of the "Habsburg Jaw".

Charles II of Spain for example was not only "funny looking" but was actually physically handicapped.

This is his family tree, his his mother's mother was also his father's sister. Telephone pole indeed.

I wouldn't be surprised if the people portrayed came out of a gene pond pool of similar "depth".
Posted by: Chanter Jomosh8995   2009-09-23 15:40  

#13  Lotp, ever considered how selective breeding for sociopathy would look?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2009-09-23 11:40  

#12  Cornsilk,

You make a good point about the multigenerational effect of 1st cousin marriage. Getting a handle on this depends, to a great extent, on whether the 'other' parent of the 1st cousin is from the same clan or outside the clan but from the same tribe or from another tribe. If the 'other' parent is always from the same clan, I think the genetic history would get pretty thin (as you say, telephone pole like), however, if every third generation or so there was someone from outside the clan (even better outside the tribe), that would help a lot.
Posted by: lord garth   2009-09-23 11:36  

#11  We need to prepare strategies with a special focus on genetics," Dr. Ghazi Omar Tadmouri, Assistant Director of CAGS, said in a statement. CAGS has so far completed studies in the UAE, Oman and Bahrain and plans to continue extensive research throughout the Arab world.

Please don't tell me arab science is motivated by the desire to boink their cousins . . . .
Posted by: gorb   2009-09-23 11:01  

#10  After a while, all those goat and camel genomes are gonna sneak in and mix. Jes' sayin', cuz,
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839   2009-09-23 10:42  

#9  Also,IIRC, 1st cousin marriage is significantly different from sister marriage.

Maybe the first time, lord garth, but if you do that for several generations....and your family tree resembles a telephone pole, it really isn't.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie   2009-09-23 08:17  

#8  Speaking as a dog breeder ....

it is true that a certain degree of genetic similarity is desireable to fix traits.

The problem with doing this by cross breeding of close relatives is twofold. First, you reinforce recessive traits that are recessive for a reason, i.e. they are bad.

Natural selection has resulted in many unhelpful gene values within species. They are mostly recessive (i.e. you need two copies, one from each parent, for them to control health or development). If they were dominant, the offspring who inherit them would have the problem condition and would lose out to healthier specimens who don't inherit that gene value. But the fact that they are around at all suggests that eliminating them would eliminate other good qualities, since genes reside on chromosomes and it is entire chromosomes that are passed on by the parents. So some bad genes persist and wise populations avoid doubling on them.

But second, there are a lot of traits that aren't controlled by a single gene or even two or three of them, but which result from a very complex interaction of proteins controlled by many genes. These are well beyond our current ability to predict.

Reputable dog breeders know about these mechanisms and use linebreeding (but not close inbreeding) to ensure the persistence of excellent qualities. They also breed outside of their lines once every few generations to dogs with similar physical characteristics but different heritages, to maintain hybrid vigor and genetic diversity. Persistent inbreeding leads to loss of reproductive vigor and health, even where there isn't any obvious inherited problem otherwise.

Posted by: lotp   2009-09-23 08:01  

#7  Anyone got a pic of "Purty Mouth" the AQ honcho zapped 2 or 3(?) years ago?
Posted by: ed   2009-09-23 06:40  

#6  I read (I believe in an article about FDR) that marrying not too close is not too bad, since it discourages conflicting extremes from matching up - like large teeth in a small mouth...
Posted by: Bobby   2009-09-23 06:14  

#5  1st cousin marriage should also produce more people with 140+ IQ as well as more deformities (IIRC, the ratio between the two is about 1 excess genius for every 200 deformities.

Also, IIRC, 1st cousin marriage is significantly different from sister marriage.
Posted by: lord garth   2009-09-23 06:07  

#4  Nice piccys Fred , even better commentary

lol
Posted by: Oscar   2009-09-23 05:19  

#3  Also explains why so many Arabs are downright funny looking...

I know this might fall squarely into a purely Racist notion, depending on your point of view, but... despite all the notion that arabo-muslims are superior (very common notion, if only implicit, from my very own experience, arabs are cunnier, manlier, bolder, more honorable, purer, Real Men, etc, etc....), a sizeable chunk of the north africans one can meet in everyday life or see on teevee look... like people you wouldn't want to trust or encounter in groups when alone.
YMMV, of course.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2009-09-23 03:52  

#2  Hence why they all call each other "brother" and "sister".

OT :

"French" arabs tend to call each other "cousins", though this is a bit self-conscious (kinda like the black american "brothers"), as opposed to the "french", how they call white french people, this one is VERY casual and widespread, shows well how they see themselves, as opposed to the Diversity dogma telling us that "they're as french as everybody else, if not more".

Note racist arabs or blacks tend to be politicized and call white "white" or funny neologisms like "leucoderm" or "souchiens" - IE "root people", sounds just like sub-dogs. And, IIUC, the salafists love to call kufrs "cafards", roaches.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2009-09-23 03:47  

#1  Marrying your first cousin isn't significantly different genetically from marrying your sister.

Hence why they all call each other "brother" and "sister".
Posted by: ed   2009-09-23 02:00  

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