patrick.net

But it’s not just Saudi Arabia, or the Middle East for that matter. Inbreeding is surprisingly common in many Muslim nations and communities, evidence shows.

About 40 percent of the population marries a cousin in Egypt, according to a 2016 report in The Economist, while the percentage in Jordan is 32 percent.

“Rates are thought to be even higher in tribal countries such as Iraq and the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Kuwait,” says the Economist.

A 2005 BBC survey found that 55 percent of Britain’s huge Pakistani population was married to a first cousin. ...

But inbreeding is an issue that needs to be addressed, some European leaders say. The problem is that genetic deficiencies from consanguineous marriages is taxing European healthcare systems.

The BBC’s research, for example, found that that while British Pakistanis accounted for roughly 3.4% of all births, “they had 30% of all British children with recessive disorders and a higher rate of infant mortality.” ...

However, it should be noted that one of the impediments to addressing the issue of consanguineous marriage and its side-effects has nothing to do with Muslims. A serious problem, some critics say, is the inability of Western thought leaders to give the issue sufficient attention. Many, it seems, are hesitant to broach the subject, perhaps out of fear they’ll be mocked as xenophobic or portrayed as an Islamophobe. That won’t do, critics say.

“It's a public health issue and we deal with public health issues by raising awareness, by talking about subjects such as obesity, such as drug addiction, such as alcohol,” Ann Cryer, a former British Labour Party politician, told The Telegraph. “But for some reason we're told that we mustn't talk about cousin marriages because this is a sensitive issue.”

The dialogue raises an important question: If we can’t talk about sensitive cultural issues, how are people of diverse backgrounds, faiths, and ethnicities ever going to live together peacefully?