Islam and first cousin marriages

[The Valkyrie]

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?

Oh, "emulated"!


*Puts the kerosene away*

[Rev. Rye]

In Gone With the Wind, it's said "The Wilkes and Hamiltons always marry their own cousins." One shudders to see what the Wilkes family would have ended up like after all this time.

Probably something like this...

---

---

Odd, Drumpf seems a bit more exogamous than the average bear, especially given that two of his three wives came from behind the Iron Curtain. And Dad married a Scotswoman. I don't care too much to go into his grandparents' consanguinity.

[Bosnian_Atheist]

Fortunately, there are no marriages between cousins in my country. No one even knows that Islam allows marriage between cousins.