Islam and first cousin marriages

[Crunchy]

This seems like it could be a problem. The practice of marrying first cousins is allowed and often encouraged in the Middle east as Sharia allows it and Muhammed married a first cousin. (And he is to be emulated)
There has therefore been a build up of first cousin marriages over 50 generations (1400 years).

http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=htt...2012-03-15

Statistical research on Arabic countries shows that up to 34 percent of all marriages in Algiers are consanguine (blood related), 46 percent in Bahrain, 33 percent in Egypt, 80 percent in Nubia (southern area in Egypt), 60 percent in Iraq, 64 percent in Jordan, 64 percent in Kuwait, 42 percent in Lebanon, 48 percent in Libya, 47 percent in Mauritania, 54 percent in Qatar, 67 percent in Saudi Arabia, 63 percent in Sudan, 40 percent in Syria, 39 percent in Tunisia, 54 percent in the United Arabic Emirates and 45 percent in Yemen.

It also appears that the practice becomes concentrated in immigrant communities that are reluctant to integrate.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...risks.html

Studies have shown that  55 per cent of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins – and in Bradford, this  rises to 75 per cent.

This practice is also having dire consequences.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/ne...442010.stm

British Pakistanis are 13 times more likely to have children with genetic disorders than the general population - they account for just over 3% of all births but have just under a third of all British children with such illnesses.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-f...eding.html

It is common in the Islamic world to marry your brother’s daughter, which is actually closer than marrying your cousin.
“We should be concerned about that as there can be a lot of hidden genetic damage. Children are much more likely to get two copies of a damaged gene.”
He added: “Bradford is very inbred. There is a huge amount of cousins marrying each other there.” Research in Bradford has found that babies born to Pakistani women are twice as likely to die in their first year as babies born to white mothers, with genetic problems linked to inbreeding identified as a “significant” cause.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2...P9pPojyuUk
The above article states that first cousin marriage significantly reduces IQ and they did not even measure what this affect would be if carried out over many generations.

This seems like a really deep problem and I have to wonder how this affects the overall population of the middle east with respect to many other problems not listed here. 
Any thoughts on this?

[Minimalist]

The above article states that first cousin marriage significantly reduces IQ

Just the way the imams like it.

[Alex K]

I was always under the impression from what I had heard that the effect wasn't so large at least for the occasional first cousin marriage. I remain sceptical...

[Crunchy]

I was always under the impression from what I had heard that the effect wasn't so large at least for the occasional first cousin marriage. I remain sceptical...

The research I linked to and the results in Britain seems to show differently. But what do you think the result would be after generations of this behavior?

[Brian37]

Inner family marriage is not unique to Islam. Christianity for a long time thought it was no big deal. The ancient Egyptians used to marry off family members to some degree.

Most of antiquity thought of children, but especially girls as a commodity to barter between families to create a bigger resource bond. Pre arranged marriages were quite common in in most of antiquity, and since the mortality rate was much higher back then, a female would have been considered ready for bartering/sex upon their earliest period. Usually between the ages of 9-14 on average.

If you google search country laws about marriage even in the west it can be in the low to mid teens depending. It wasn't that long ago in America that even the age of 14 was acceptable in some places.

I really warn about focusing on one religion, most of antiquity worldwide displayed the same behaviors when it came to patriarchal society. Men were widely thought of as the king of the house, girls/women were considered property and men had the power back then to tell them what to do and who to marry. That was not just in Islam, but in most of antiquity including polytheism.

[Crunchy]

Inner family marriage is not unique to Islam. Christianity for a long time thought it was no big deal. The ancient Egyptians used to marry off family members to some degree.

Most of antiquity thought of children, but especially girls as a commodity to barter between families to create a bigger resource bond. Pre arranged marriages were quite common in in most of antiquity, and since the mortality rate was much higher back then, a female would have been considered ready for bartering/sex upon their earliest period. Usually between the ages of 9-14 on average.

If you google search country laws about marriage even in the west it can be in the low to mid teens depending. It wasn't that long ago in America that even the age of 14 was acceptable in some places.

I really warn about focusing on one religion, most of antiquity worldwide displayed the same behaviors when it came to patriarchal society. Men were widely thought of as the king of the house, girls/women were considered property and men had the power back then to tell them what to do and who to marry. That was not just in Islam, but in most of antiquity including polytheism.

OK? But we don't live in antiquity.
The rate of birth defects and infant mortality is a significant problem. I'm curious as to why you seem to be counselling avoidance of the issue? Is it just because it's a sensitive issue?

[brewer]

This is not exclusively a muslim issue. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coupled_cousins

The risks are dependent primarily upon autosomal recessive genes within the family line. In first cousins they will have 12.5% of genes in common. The increased incidence of birth defects is 2 to 3 percent greater than the general population. 

http://www.genetics.edu.au/Publications-...sanguinity

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3419292/

[GrandizerII]

Still acceptable in certain Christian communities as well (I know because I come from one such community). Not exclusive to Muslim communities.

[Brian37]

Inner family marriage is not unique to Islam. Christianity for a long time thought it was no big deal. The ancient Egyptians used to marry off family members to some degree.

Most of antiquity thought of children, but especially girls as a commodity to barter between families to create a bigger resource bond. Pre arranged marriages were quite common in in most of antiquity, and since the mortality rate was much higher back then, a female would have been considered ready for bartering/sex upon their earliest period. Usually between the ages of 9-14 on average.

If you google search country laws about marriage even in the west it can be in the low to mid teens depending. It wasn't that long ago in America that even the age of 14 was acceptable in some places.

I really warn about focusing on one religion, most of antiquity worldwide displayed the same behaviors when it came to patriarchal society. Men were widely thought of as the king of the house, girls/women were considered property and men had the power back then to tell them what to do and who to marry. That was not just in Islam, but in most of antiquity including polytheism.

OK? But we don't live in antiquity.
The rate of birth defects and infant mortality is a significant problem. I'm curious as to why you seem to be counselling avoidance of the issue? Is it just because it's a sensitive issue?

So, I was talking about even our modern era even outside Islam. The idea of teens getting bartered between families still exists elsewhere. Even if the sex is illegal, some sects of LDS still promise the girl to a man even if the man legally has to wait. 

Child brides or giving away a child to someone still exists even in poor parts of Asia. The concept of your parents deciding whom you marry also exist in India depending on the individual family with Hindu's and Sikhs.

Again, if you think that is unique to Islam do a google search on America's state laws on the age of consent, and also Mexico, Central America and South America. 

Yes in breading does cause birth defects, but again, while most of the west frowns upon it, age of consent ranges widely and causes far more unwanted pregnancies and social diseases in poor countries in the Americas and Africa. 

Yes go after Islam, but don't pretend it is the only religion that has followers who have not caught up with the times.

[paulpablo]

I think in the uk where I'm from it would be a mainly Muslim issue, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Christian issue in other places.

It's really common for Pakistanis to still have arranged marriages, at least 3 or 4 Pakistanis who I work with are having arranged marriages and it's another one of those things that isn't really common outside of Islam in the modern day UK.

It might not even be a Muslim issue but more of a Pakistani issue since I don't know if it applies to Indians, Africans and other Muslims.