Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Antony on April 19, 2013 at 6:19

Yes ! - cousin marriages should be banned forthwith, as with FGM, the damaging consequences of this have been known for ages, and yet the state and it's organs have done nothing about it, and we, the taxpayer, are expected to foot the bill for all the birth defects etc.

Permalink Reply by Alan Lake on September 15, 2013 at 22:39

UK: Muslims keep marrying first cousins despite the horrific genetic consequences

http://www.barenakedislam.com/2010/08/23/uk-muslims-keep-marrying-f...

In the UK more than 50 per cent of British Pakistanis marry their first cousins – in Bradford that figure is 75 per cent – and across the country the practice is on the rise and also common among East African, Middle-Eastern and Bangladeshi communities.

By TAZEEN AHMAD My mum has always had a special place in her family because she was the first girl to live beyond childhood. Five of her sisters died as babies or toddlers. It was not until many years later that anyone worked out why so many children died and three boys were born deaf.



Tazeen Ahmad

Today there is no doubt among us that this tragedy occurred because my grandparents were first cousins.

My family is not unique. Back when my grandparents were having children, the medical facts were not established. But today in Britain alone there are more than 70 scientific studies on the subject.

We know the children of first cousins are ten times more likely to be born with recessive genetic disorders which can include infant mortality, deafness and blindness.

We know British Pakistanis constitute 1.5 per cent of the population, yet a third of all children born in this country with rare recessive genetic diseases come from this community.

Despite overwhelming evidence, in the time I spent filming Dispatches: When Cousins Marry, I felt as if I was breaking a taboo rather than addressing a reality. Pakistanis have been marrying cousins for generations. In South Asia the custom keeps family networks close and ensures assets remain in the family. In Britain, the aim can be to strengthen bonds with the subcontinent as cousins from abroad marry British partners.

Some told us they face extreme pressure to marry in this way. One young woman, ‘Zara’, said when she was 16 she was emotionally blackmailed by her husband’s family in Pakistan who threatened suicide over loss of honour should she refuse to marry her cousin.


She relented and lives in a deeply unhappy marriage. But others told me of the great benefits of first cousin marriage – love, support and understanding. To them, questioning it is an attack on the community or, worse, Islam.

At a Pakistani centre in Sheffield, one man said: ‘The community feels targeted, whether that be forced marriages or first-cousin marriages. The community is battening down its hatches, not wanting to engage.’

As a British Pakistani, I am aware of the religious, cultural and racial sensitivities around this issue and understand why people would be on the defensive when questioned about it. At times I was torn between explaining the health risks while privately understanding the community’s sense of being demonized.

It is not about religion or cultural identity. It is about avoidable suffering such at that experienced by Saeeda and Jalil Akhtar, whom I met in Bradford. They are first cousins and have six children, three with the genetic disease mucolipidosis type IV. This stops the body getting rid of waste properly and affects brain functions controlling vision and movement.

Mohsin, their second eldest, is 17 and blind. He wanders aimless and helpless, often crying in frustration. His sisters Hina, 13, and Zainab, 11, have the same condition. They live in almost complete darkness. Saeeda is worn down from years of round-the-clock care. She spoon-feeds them, dresses them and fears for them. Neither she nor her husband can quite accept that their familial link is the cause of this pain.


This is a major public health issue that has huge implications for other services. The cost to the NHS is many millions of pounds.

On average, a children’s hospital will see 20 to 30 recessive gene disorders a decade, but one hospital in Bradford has seen 165, while British Pakistani children are three times more likely to have learning difficulties, with care costing about £75,000 a year per child.

However during this investigation we found no efforts to introduce any national awareness-raising campaign. Why? We approached 16 MPs with a significant number of British Pakistani constituents for interview – every one declined. A lone voice was Ann Cryer, former Labour MP for Keighley, near Bradford, who said ‘fear of being accused of racism or demonisation’ prevented politicians speaking up.

The conclusion some will draw is that cousin marriages should be banned. I disagree.(Then you are part of the problem) But people must be able to make informed choices about the risks involved and options available, be they genetic screening, counselling or carrier-testing.

If this were any other health issue, politicians would have been out in force. But they are silent and as a result children continue to be born with terrible, preventable disabilities that are devastating their lives and those of their loved ones. UK DAILY MAIL H/T Scottish Infidel

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Permalink Reply by Alan Lake on October 16, 2013 at 21:34

This came from a Lockheed employee who has had 3 assignments to Saudi Arabia. 

1,400 YEARS OF INBREEDING. 

During the pilot transition program with the KV-107 and C-130 with Lockheed, we found that most Saudi pilot trainees had very limited night vision, even on the brightest of moon lit nights. Their training retention rate was minimal including maintenance personnel.

Some had dim memories and had to be constantly reminded of things that were told to them the day before. Needless to say, an American, British or any other western instructor gets burned out pretty quick. It actually took Muslim C-130 pilots years before they could fly in the dark safely and then would be reluctant to leave the lights of a city.

Ask any Marine, Air Force or Army guy who's been trying to train Iraqis, and especially Afghans. They will say, "Yep, dumber than homemade dodo".

Islam is not only a religion, it's a way of life all the way around. Yet another set of revealing facts about Muslim beliefs and traditions and ways of life. 1400 years of inbreeding. I found this to be interesting. Didn't know whether to believe it or not. To research I went to Wikipedia, "Cousin Marriage", and far down in the article "Genetics", it seems there is a lot of truth here.

A huge Muslim problem: Inbreeding---
Nikolai Sennels is a Danish psychologist who has done extensive research into a little-known problem in the Muslim world: the disastrous results of Muslim inbreeding brought about by the marriage of first-cousins.
This practice, which has been prohibited in the Judeo-Christian tradition since the days of Moses, was sanctioned by Muhammad and has been going on now for 50 generations (1,400 years) in the Muslim world.
This practice of inbreeding will never go away in the Muslim world, since Muhammad is the ultimate example and authority on all matters, including marriage.
The massive inbreeding in Muslim culture may well have done virtually irreversible damage to the Muslim gene pool, including extensive damage to its intelligence, sanity, and health.
According to Sennels, close to half of all Muslims in the world are inbred. In Pakistan, the numbers approach 70%. Even in England, more than half of Pakistani immigrants are married to their first cousins, and in Denmark the number of inbred Pakistani immigrants is around 40%.

The numbers are equally devastating in other important Muslim countries: 67% in Saudi Arabia, 64% in Jordan, and Kuwait, 63% in Sudan, 60% in Iraq, and 54% in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

According to the BBC, this Pakistani, Muslim-inspired inbreeding is thought to explain the probability that a British Pakistani family is more than 13 times as likely to have children with recessive genetic disorders. While Pakistanis are responsible for three percent of the births in the UK, they account for 33% of children with genetic birth defects.
The risks of what are called autosomal recessive disorders such as cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy is 18 times higher and the risk of death due to malformations is 10 times higher.
Other negative consequences of inbreeding include a 100 percent increase in the risk of still births and a 50% increase in the possibility that a child will die during labor.
Lowered intellectual capacity is another devastating consequence of Muslim marriage patterns. According to Sennels, research shows that children of consanguineous marriages lose 10-16 points off their IQ and that social abilities develop much slower in inbred babies.
The risk of having an IQ lower than 70, the official demarcation for being classified as "retarded," increases by an astonishing 400 percent among children of cousin marriages. (Similar effects were seen in the Pharaonic dynasties in ancient Egypt and in the British royal family, where inbreeding was the norm for a significant period of time.)

In Denmark, non-Western immigrants are more than 300 percent more likely to fail the intelligence test required for entrance into the Danish army.

Sennels says that "the ability to enjoy and produce knowledge and abstract thinking is simply lower in the Islamic world." He points out that the Arab world translates just 330 books every year, about 20% of what Greece alone does.

In the last 1,200 years of Islam, just 100,000 books have been translated into Arabic, about what Spain does in a single year. Seven out of 10 Turks have never even read a book.
Sennels points out the difficulties this creates for Muslims seeking to succeed in the West. "A lower IQ, together with a religion that denounces critical thinking, surely makes it harder for many Muslims to have success in our high-tech knowledge societies."

Only nine Muslims have ever won the Nobel Prize, and five of those were for the "Peace Prize." According to Nature magazine, Muslim countries produce just 10 percent of the world average when it comes to scientific research measured by articles per million inhabitants.

In Denmark, Sennels' native country, Muslim children are grossly over represented among children with special needs. One-third of the budget for Danish schools is consumed by special education, and anywhere from 51% to 70% of retarded children with physical handicaps in Copenhagen have an immigrant background. Learning ability is severely affected as well. Studies indicated that 64% of school children with Arabic parents are still illiterate after 10 years in the Danish school system. The immigrant drop-out rate in Danish high schools is twice that of the native-born.

Mental illness is also a product. The closer the blood relative, the higher the risk of schizophrenic illness. The increased risk of insanity may explain why more than 40% of patients in Denmark's biggest ward for clinically insane criminals have an immigrant background.

The U.S. is not immune. According to Sennels, "One study based on 300,000 Americans shows that the majority of Muslims in the USA have a lower income, are less educated, and have worse jobs than the population as a whole."

Sennels concludes: There is no doubt that the wide spread tradition of first cousin marriages among Muslims has harmed the gene pool among Muslims. Because Muslims' religious beliefs prohibit marrying non-Muslims and thus prevents them from adding fresh genetic material to their population, the genetic damage done to their gene pool since their prophet allowed first cousin marriages 1,400 years ago are most likely massive. This has produced overwhelming direct and indirect human and societal consequences.

Bottom line: Islam is not simply a benign and morally equivalent alternative to the Judeo-Christian tradition. As Sennels points out, the first and biggest victims of Islam are Muslims. Simple Judeo-Christian compassion for Muslims and a common-sense desire to protect Western civilization from the ravages of Islam dictate a vigorous opposition to the spread of this dark and dangerous religion.

These stark realities must be taken into account when we establish public polices dealing with immigration from Muslim countries and the building of mosques in the U.S.

 Let's hope the civilized West and the North Americans wake up before a blind naiveté about the reality of Islam destroys what remains of our Judeo-Christian culture and our domestic tranquility.

Permalink Reply by Antony on October 16, 2013 at 22:21

Alan - any chance of a link to the above article please ?

Permalink Reply by Alan Lake on October 17, 2013 at 2:52

Sorry, it came through an email :-)  If you want to send that to someone else, you know if you click on the little chain symbol next to the post, it gives you a link direct to that bit of the forum?

Permalink Reply by Alan Lake on April 27, 2015 at 6:10

See also this forum (which should eventually be consolidated into here):

http://4freedoms.com/group/children/forum/topics/first-cousin-marri...

Permalink Reply by Antony on July 8, 2015 at 8:53

First cousin marriages amongst Pakistani communities leading to disability ; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/children/11723308/First-cous...

Permalink Reply by Alan Lake on October 5, 2015 at 2:20

'Bradford is very inbred': Muslim outrage as professor warns first-cousin marriages increase risk of birth defects

By TOM KELLY FOR THE DAILY MAIL 
UPDATED: 11:06, 30 May 2011

Professor Steve Jones, from University College London, said the common practice in Islamic communities for cousins to marry each other increased the risk of birth defects

Inbreeding among British Muslims is threatening the health of their children, a  leading geneticist warned yesterday.

Professor Steve Jones, from University College London, said the common practice in Islamic communities for cousins to marry each other increased the risk of birth defects.

‘There may be some evidence that cousins marrying one another can be harmful,’ he  told an audience at the Hay Festival.

‘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.

‘Bradford is very inbred. There is a huge amount of cousins marrying each other there.’

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

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Other research has found that children of first cousins are ten times more likely  to have recessive genetic  disorders and face deafness, blindness and infant mortality.

But Prof Jones’s comments provoked anger among some Muslim groups yesterday.

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

Concern about the risks to children from first-cousin marriage has been described as the last great taboo

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, which promotes the image of Muslims in Britain, said: ‘I know many Muslims who have married their cousins and none of them have had a problem with their children.

‘Obviously, we don’t want any children to be born disabled who don’t need to be born disabled, so I would advise genetic screening before first cousins marry.

'But I find Steve Jones’s comments unworthy of a professor. Using language like “inbreeding” to describe cousins marrying is completely inappropriate and further demonises Muslims.’

Concern about the risks to children from first-cousin marriage has been described as the last great taboo.

Former environment minister Phil Woolas was rebuked by Downing Street in 2008 for saying British Pakistanis are fuelling rates of birth defects by marrying their cousins, with the spokesman for then prime minister Gordon Brown saying the issue was not one for ministers to comment on.

Mohammed Saleem Khan, chief executive of the Bradford Council for Mosques, said: ‘It is important to discuss these issues, but I just do not know of any firm evidence backing up Professor Jones’s claims. I think we need more conclusive studies so we can know for certain if there is any genuine risk.

‘Marriages between cousins is certainly common within south Asia, but it is becoming less so in Britain and also in Bradford. Islam allows you to marry anyone you want, so in many ways Islam promotes diversity.’

In his talk, Prof Jones said inbreeding was not confined to Muslims, and historically had occurred in every part of society, including the royal family.

He said: ‘We are all more incestuous than we realise. In Northern Ireland lots of people share the same surname, which suggests a high level of inbreeding.

‘There’s a lot of surname diversity in London but if you look at the Outer Hebrides there are rather fewer surnames in relation to the number of people.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392217/Muslim-outrage-prof... 

Permalink Reply by Alan Lake on October 5, 2015 at 2:21

Denmark: Immigrant inbreeding costing millions

When cousins have children together, they are twice as likely to have a disabled child, which is expensive for the municipals.

Disabled immigrant children costs Danish municipalities millions, a report from BT says.

In Copenhagen County alone, the number of disabled children has increases 100 percent in 10 years.

The explanations are many:

More women give birth in old age.

More disabled children survive.

But it also turns out that immigrants give birth to more disabled children than Danes do.

A major reason is due to the many cousin-marriages among immigrants.

The risk of having a disabled child in a cousin-marriage is twice as large as if the child is born in an ordinary marriage.

Therefore Integration Ministry and the Ministry of Health has a sent out information to warn about cousin-marriages and to explain the health risks.

It is exclusively aimed at immigrants and sent out to 97 Turkish associations, 75 integration counsels, 35 Pakistani associations and 275 municipalities.

Already in 2000 it was clear that while 13 per cent of all children were immigrants in Copenhagen Municipality, they accounted for 24 per cent of severely disabled children.

- We can not say exactly to what extent it is related to cousin-marriage. But we know that it is twice as likely to have a disabled child, if one is closely related than if you're not, says Karen Brøndum-Nielsen, professor and department chief at the Kennedy Institute, a scientists in genetics.

She explains that one do not register people based on ethnicity because it considered discriminatory.

The heavy resource burden is something that affects the budgets of both county and municipality.

Eg. the City of Copenhagen's family and labor management, where one see a clear over-representation of disabled children of immigrants, the budget is overrun by 43 million DKK.

The initial budget was for a staggering 1.2 billion DKK.

One reason for the significant increase is believed to be the many cousin-marriages, which is a tradition among many Muslims.

- No one knows for sure why the number of disabled children is increasing, but the diagnosis is that cousin-marriages play a role for the children," says Karen Brøndum-Nielsen.

http://speisa.com/modules/articles/index.php/item.1213/denmark-immi...

Permalink Reply by Alan Lake on October 5, 2015 at 2:22

It’s time to confront this taboo: First cousin marriages in Muslim communities are putting hundreds of children at risk

The man wept as he told how his beautiful, dark-eyed child died in a hospital cot with medical tubes snaking from his frail body as nurses fought unsuccessfully to save him. Sick with pneumonia, the two-year-old gave up the battle for life.

A rare tragedy, you might think, in  modern Britain, with all the advances of medical science.

But in the terraced streets of Bradford, Yorkshire, a child’s death is anything but rare. At the boy’s inquest, coroner Mark Hinchliffe said Hamza Rehman had died because his Pakistan-born parents (shopkeeper Abdul and housewife Rozina) are first cousins. 

Four years before, Hamza’s older sister, three-month-old Khadeja, had died of the same brain disorder which causes fits, sickness and chest infections. The couple had another baby born with equally devastating neurological problems.  

A heartbroken Mr Rehman told the inquest that he and his wife were unsure whether to have any more children. The coroner expressed deep sympathy before saying that Hamza’s death should serve as a warning to others.

‘This highlights a cultural and religious issue relating to first-cousin marriages and the potential risk to children that some medical experts say can result from such unions.’

He said: ‘This highlights a cultural and religious issue relating to first-cousin marriages and the potential risk to children that some medical experts say can result from such unions.’

The coroner chose his words carefully, since he was addressing one of the most controversial — and taboo — subjects in multi-cultural Britain: marriage between cousins in the Muslim communities which has left hundreds, if not thousands, of children damaged or dead.

This week, leading geneticist Professor Steve Jones, of University College London, warned that ‘inbreeding’ in Islamic communities was threatening the health of generations of children. 

He said: ‘We should be concerned as there can be a lot of hidden genetic damage and children are much more likely to get two copies of a damaged gene.’

He highlighted Bradford as a city that was ‘very inbred’.

This is not the first time the distressing issue has been raised. Ann Cryer, the Labour MP for nearby Keighley, has said that cousin marriages are medieval, harm children and are arranged in order to keep wealth and property within families.

Critic: Keighley MP Anne Cryer has condemned first-cousin marriages

‘It is not fair to the children or to the NHS which has to treat them. If you go into a paediatric ward in Bradford or Keighley, you will find more than half the kids are from the Asian community,’ she said.

Since Asians form only 20 to 30 per cent of the population, that figure is clearly disproportionate.

Mrs Cryer recalled the case of a young girl in hospital who had to carry an oxygen tank on her back and breathe from a hole in the front of her neck.

‘Her parents were warned by doctors not to have more children,’ she explained.

‘But when the husband returned again from Pakistan, his wife had given birth within months to another child with exactly the same condition.’

Are the MP’s words, and those of Professor Jones, inflammatory or simply a truth that needs to  be aired?

Sadly, the facts speak for themselves. British Pakistanis, half of whom marry a first cousin (a figure that is universally agreed), are 13 times more likely to produce children with genetic disorders than the general population, according to Government-sponsored research.

One in ten children from these cousin marriages either dies in infancy or develops a serious life-threatening disability.  

While British Pakistanis account for three per cent of the births in this country, they are responsible for 33 per cent of the 15,000 to 20,000 children born each year with genetic defects.

The vast majority of problems are caused by recessive gene disorders, according to London’s Genetic Interest Group, which advises affected families.

Everyone carries some abnormal genes, but most people don’t have a defect because the normal gene overrules the abnormal one.

One in ten children from these cousin marriages either dies in infancy or develops a serious life-threatening disability.

But if a husband and wife both have an abnormal recessive gene, they have a one in four chance of producing a child with defects.

These include blindness, deafness, blood ailments such as sickle cell anaemia, heart or kidney failure, lung or liver problems and myriad complex neurological or brain disorders.

Even their healthy children have a one in four chance of being a carrier of a defect, with terrible implications for the next generation.

The problem is most serious in Bradford. A recent survey of 1,100 pregnant women in the city showed that 70 per cent have husbands who are first cousins — a higher percentage than the average of 50 per cent among Pakistanis across the whole of Britain.

Shocking: The practice of inter-marriage within Muslim communities is leading to some children being born with a raft of genetic diseases

It is no surprise therefore that more than six per cent of children in Bradford have health defects, with paediatric wards looking after countless children, including teenagers lying in nappies who are unable to speak and are fed through a tube.

Meanwhile, the city’s special schools struggle to cope with huge numbers of pupils with learning difficulties.

Bradford’s St Luke’s Hospital has seen an extraordinary rise in the number of different types of genetic disorders. Some are very rare and, hitherto, unknown in Britain.

In a typical health authority area, the range of different types of genetic disorder total 25 a year. But in Bradford, 140 have been diagnosed, according to Dr Peter Corry, a consultant paediatrician at the hospital.

Many are degenerative ailments which lead to a decline in the ability of the brain and spinal cord to function properly after a child is born, as in the case of Hamza and Khadeja. Their bodies weakened, and unable to fight off infections, they gradually faded away.

The British Paediatric Surveillance Unit says eight per cent of all UK children born with this kind of neuro-degenerative condition come from Bradford, although the city has just one per cent of the UK’s population.

Research into the city’s 9,000 disabled youngsters also revealed a ‘disproportionately high’ level of hearing and sight problems in Pakistani families.

But Bradford is not alone. In Birmingham, which also has a big Pakistani community, the city’s Primary Care Trust estimates that one in ten of all children born to first cousins either dies in infancy or goes on to have a serious disability because of a recessive gene disorder.

Devout: Muslims pray at a Mosque in Bradford. A study of the city’s Muslim population found that 70 per cent of marriages are between relatives, with more than half between cousins

Yet cousin marriages — and the resulting consequences — remain a taboo subject. Few of the affected families will discuss the issue publicly.

Many NHS doctors, while admitting privately there is a crisis, refuse to speak out for fear of being branded ‘racist’.

However, on Muslim websites the issue is discussed more freely. An Asian health worker wrote recently: ‘I went to two special schools in my city. One was for children with physical disabilities; the other with kids who had learning difficulties.

‘The children at the second school were aged 13 to 19. None of them was capable of functioning beyond the behaviour expected of an infant. They all wore nappies.

‘They didn’t speak, a few grunts aside. All needed inordinate amounts of special care, from doctors, speech therapists and so on. The parents are drained emotionally.

‘Of the six 16-year-olds at the second school, five were Pakistani and one was a Tamil. All had blood-related ancestry. I rest my case: cousin marriages don’t work.’

So why are cousin marriages so popular?

As one British-Pakistani put it bluntly on a similar website: ‘A main reason why this corrupt practice is still followed in Britain is because the family wants to keep their property, land, jewellery and money in the family.

‘The lack of education in families, along with a Pakistani village culture, encourages these incestuous marriages. The children are born disabled and it must cost the NHS millions of pounds to treat them. Maybe if the NHS refused to treat the children the families would have second thoughts.’

They were harsh words. But this week I was told by charity workers, doctors and counsellors working with families in Yorkshire, Lancashire and the Midlands that many parents also believe it is an ‘act of God’ or the ‘will of Allah’ that their children are born disabled.

According to Zed Ali, manager of a Lancashire charity, Project BME (Black Minority Ethnics), some parents think that if their children die, they will become angels in heaven.

‘It is hard to counter these religious views without offending the Pakistani community,’ she says.

Zed, who has what she calls dual-heritage Asian and British background, was a social worker in Burnley, Lancashire, before founding Project BME.

She said: ‘In Burnley, I saw a huge number of children from cousin marriages with learning disabilities. It was often not just one child, but two or three in one family.

‘When it comes to cousin marriages, the boy and girl often have no choice.

‘Their families don’t take their happiness into account. Marriage is arranged by the parents or grandparents, who are also often related to each other.

‘A girl will be told she is marrying her cousin when she is 14, 15 or 16. They catch them young before they are old enough to break away from the family. The girls are frightened of being ostracised if they don’t do it. A male cousin is chosen in Pakistan to marry them.

‘It is cruel because of the possible consequences. Arranged marriages can work, but they can be a form of abuse to both sexes.’

In Bradford, Dr Peter Corry says he knows of one family with six children all with the same genetic neurological disorder, which means none of them will survive to adulthood.

A Muslim doctor trying to tackle the problem is Mohamed Walji, who runs a health centre in Balsall Heath, Birmingham.

‘The huge number of applications for child disability allowances in our multicultural cities and towns shows the reality,’ he explains.

‘We all carry mutations in our genome [the genetic blueprint for our body] — half of which comes from our father and half from our mother. But the chances of carrying the same mutations is higher in first cousins and those marrying within very close-knit communities.

‘If they both carry the same mutations, there is a one-in-four chance of having an affected child — which can result in anything from a mild disability to a catastrophic illness or a miscarriage.’

Dr Walji says the consequences are devastating — not only to the sick child, but also to siblings, parents and the extended family.

There are endless hospital visits and one of the parents has to become a full-time carer. At worst, there is the trauma of watching a child die or suffer from a long-term illness with no cure.

Dr Walji has discussed how cousin marriages were damaging local families with the imam in his local mosque, who has since given lectures about the dangers of such unions to children.

‘It has had quite an impact,’ says Dr Walji, proudly. ‘It has led to fewer cousin marriages.’

Yet you only have to read the internet messages on Muslim medical forums to understand the scale of this tragedy.   

One young mother, calling herself by the Pakistani name of Shenzah, wrote recently: ‘I have a huge difficulty. I am married to a first cousin. My parents and my husband’s parents were also married to their first cousins.

‘Now I have one daughter with lots of defects and the doctor is sure it is due to these marriages.

‘I was against marrying a first cousin because I believed it would cause genetic problems, but my family forced me. According to them, what the doctors say is all nonsense.

‘I cannot understand why cousin marriages are not forbidden in Islam. The Koran doesn’t forbid it and this encourages people around me to disbelieve what the doctors say.

‘My daughter is not going to survive for long and the doctors are unable to find out what she is suffering from.

‘They are sure if I get pregnant again, the risk for the next baby will be the same.’

She said she had two options: ‘One is to give up the idea of having any children, ever. The other is to get a divorce. Please, can anyone tell me what to do?’

These are despairing words which will bring little comfort to so many families across Britain who, like Abdul and Rozina Rehman, grieve the loss of their precious children.

http://salaam-news.com/2013/11/17/its-time-to-confront-this-taboo-f...

Permalink Reply by Kinana on November 15, 2015 at 14:08

Bradford is very inbred

05 November 2015

For EDL Bradford Demo

 

“Bradford is very inbred”

That’s what genetics Professor Steve Jones said in 2011 and, of course, it’s still true today.

He was explaining that first-cousin marriages - like those in Muslim communities - increase the risk of birth defects.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392217

••• It’s a problem for Bradford

• In the terraced streets of Bradford a child’s death is anything but rare

• 75% of Bradford Pakistani marriages are between first cousins

• 8% of all UK children born with brain and spinal cord degeneration come from Bradford, although the city has just 1% of the UK’s population.

••• It’s a problem for the NHS

• Labour MP for Keighley Ann Cryer said: ‘It is not fair to the children or to the NHS which has to treat them. If you go into a paediatric ward in Bradford or Keighley, more than half the kids are from the Asian community.’ Since Asians form only 20 to 30 per cent of the population, that figure points to a problem

• Many NHS doctors admit privately there is a crisis, but refuse to speak out for fear of being branded ‘racist’.

••• It’s a problem for England

• While British Pakistanis account for 3% of the births in this country, they produce 33% of the 15,000 to 20,000 children born each year with genetic defects

• British Pakistanis are 13 times more likely to produce children with genetic disorders than the general population.

••• What kind of birth defects come from first-cousin marriages?

• Children of first cousins are ten times more likely to be prone to deafness, blindness, blood ailments, heart or kidney failure, lung or liver problems, brain or nerve disorders and infant mortality. Spinal muscular atrophy and diabetes are also common in families with long histories of cousin marriage

• Paediatric wards have children, including teenagers, in nappies who are unable to speak and are fed through a tube

• Bradford’s special schools struggle to cope with the number of pupils with learning difficulties.

••• And the problem will only get worse

• There can be hidden genetic damage which builds up over generations, creating a genetic time bomb. Even healthy children of cousin marriages have a one in four chance of being a carrier of a defect, with terrible implications for their own children

• Cousin marriage is becoming more common among British-born Pakistanis in Bradford than it was a generation ago.

••• What do the Muslims say?

• They don’t like the term “inbreeding” - but that’s exactly what it is. Muslims don’t like straight talk

• Many first cousin parents believe their child’s disability is the ‘will of Allah’

• Others think that if their children die, they will become angels in paradise.

••• Why do the Muslims do first-cousin marriages?

1. Muhammad married a first cousin, so it must be the thing to do

2. Then Mohammed put it in the Koran (33:50). This means that Muslims will follow the Koran before they follow medical advice

3. This 7th century Arab tribal custom is still followed in Britain [IN ORDER] is to keep property, land, jewellery and money in the family

4. To bring over another relative the UK.

••• Many cousin marriages are forced or arranged marriages

• The cousins often have no choice. A girl will be told she is marrying her cousin when she is 14 or 15. A male cousin in Pakistan is chosen to marry her. This gets him into the UK.

••• So, who’s prejudiced?

Is Professor Steve Jones a 'bigot' for spelling out the reality? Of course not.

The real prejudice is not from those who highlight the problems of cousins marrying. It is from those who hide behind politically correct ideology to protect Arab tribal practices embraced by Muslims here, thereby harming the lives of tens of thousands of children in the UK.

Join us at our Bradford demo on 14 November

And if you are coming, spread the word, tell your friends.

Permalink Reply by Alan Lake on November 15, 2015 at 14:46

• British Pakistanis are 13 times more likely to produce children with genetic disorders than the general population

Seems like the fascist left love the idea making children unnecessarily suffer disablement, as well.  You'd better be careful what you say, or they'll set their attack dogs on you.

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