Posted on 08/16/2005 2:52:25 PM PDT by Alouette
After lowering infant mortality rates among Arabs in western Galilee through the reduction of neonatal infections, early detection and encouraging abortions of fetuses with major and lethal congenital defects, public health experts are now focusing on the last main cause of babies' deaths in this population: inbreeding.
Dr. Avshalom Strulov of the University of Haifa's Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Studies and of the Health Ministry's Northern District health office reports in the August issue of the Israel Medical Association Journal about efforts to discourage Arab first cousins and other close relatives from marrying. Such consanguineous marriages, he writes, "are not part of the Islamic religion" and are indeed harmful since they lead to the conception of fetuses with serious inherited diseases.
The district health office has initiated a project in areas with large Arab populations that includes study days for health personnel, initiation of reports against inbreeding in the Arabic-language mass media, and encouragement of Muslim religious leaders to declare in mosques that this practice is likely to produce defective children.
Most of the activity, however, recruits elementary and high-school teachers in the Arab sector who speak to pupils about the dangers of marrying close relatives. "The effect on the reduction of the rates of consanguineous marriages should be observable within years, and the effect on infant mortality within generations," Strulov predicts.
The three-pronged effort would further reduce the gap in infant mortality rates between the Jewish and Arab populations in Israel, he said. In 2002, the annual infant mortality rate was 4.0 per 1,000 live births among Jews and 9.0 among Arabs; in the Northern District, it was 5.4 among Jews and 7.8 among Arabs.
Strulov was appointed by the ministry nearly two decades ago as coordinator of a multi-professional and multi-organizational committee that aimed at reducing the gap in infant mortality between the two sectors as much as possible.
In the early Eighties, the rate among Arabs was 22.6 per 1,000 live births and half that among Jews.
The main causes of deaths of Arab babies in summer were acute gastrointestinal infections and diarrhea, and in winter, upper respiratory tract infections and hypothermia (low body temperature due to inadequate heating).
Information campaigns about preventing and treating both of these conditions, as well as better means for refrigeration and hygiene, brought these deaths almost down to zero.
Ultrasound facilities, doctors and subsidies by Clalit Health Services significantly increased the early detection of severe congenital defects in fetuses, most of whose mothers decided on an abortion.
The remaining major problem was consanguinity, said Strulov, and while progress on this took many years, movement was in the right direction.
I remember reading an article by an American doctor working in Saudi Arabia. He called the Saudi royal family "an irreproducible laboratory of genetic defects."
No other cultural taboos, either?
Ick.
If your Mom and Dad did not have kids, it is very likely you won't have kids either.
Does the inbreeding in Arkansas, Mississippi, etc. explain why they believe in the Bible? Perhaps inbreeding breeds in religion.
Why is it they have to bring up the religious angle? Are Muslims so dumb they don't know what every other population all over the earth figured out without the aid of "studies" thousands of years ago?
Personally, I's rather see them all marry their sisters and we could be done with them in a few generatons. - - - Hmmmm, Maybe I'll issue a Fatwa to this effect. Seems just about anyone can issue one of those...
(cue banjo music)
those 72 virgins ARE sheep!
Yes there is, and while there are exceptions, it was generally followed by punishment from God.
More importantly, since Leviticus forward, it has been forbidden.
"Being inbred increases the chance of inheriting genetic syndromes caused by malign recessive genes."
An excerpt from another related and interesting article regarding inbreeding and sociopolitical implications:
http://www.isteve.com/cousin_marriage_conundrum.htm
You are critically generalizing beyond the scope of the article. The problem seems to be shown in a study of Israeli Arabs and not the general population.
Texas permits it, but only because we're so close to Louisiana.
---and I'm not surprised at how few first cousins do marry---I've known of none--nor any second cousin marriages--
Well, John Kerry is a descendant of Mohammed.
Explains the face.
How futile! Saving Sand Savages from their Queeran based "beliefs" for what? So that more little Sand Savages can become bombers?
Golda Meir was correct when she said the Arab/Jew hatred would only stop when the Arabs valued their children more than they did thenn, or for that matter, than they now do.
I had clients once who's children had all sorts of mental and physical problems, and tended to die early. The doctors and mental health didn't know what was going on. I finally did some digging and found out they were half brother and sister! Of course, they still didn't see what the big deal was. Mind boggling.
Might I point out that while some states do allow first cousins to marry, only those like the family that whelped Bill Clinton are the types to practice such marriages as a matter of habit.
Americans have known about the genetic risks of such marriages for generations. Remember the Juke and the Kalikack families?
The Saudi's have been inbreeding themselves for more than a few generations. They truly are degenerate, literally.
Between this and the story about suicide bombers wrapping their ... ding-a-lings ... in tin foil, this has been a pretty good day for laughing at the Musselmen.
"Damn shame they have to wait sooooooooo long for those 70 virgins."
Our military is working diligently to shorten that wait.
And each of the 72 virgins come with a MOTHER IN LAW ;-)
Don't forget to throw in a half-sister every now and then.
You seem to be unaware that consanguinous marriage (inbreeding) is a common cultural/tribal bad habit world wide.
The proscription or cultural taboo on it in western culture derives directly from the biblical prohibition of it.
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