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Palestinian Islamic Scholar Yousef Makharzah: Europeans Practice Bestiality, Have Sex with Animals More than with Humans; Western Civilization Is Inferior, Asinine, Racist #Palestinians pic.twitter.com/OiCnPawkI3— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) March 17, 2022

Long before the concept of "designer babies" created in a lab became the stuff of science fiction, inbreeding in royal families was viewed as a way to ensure genetic purity. Intermarriage ensured that no "common" blood sullied pure, aristocratic blood lines. What could go wrong? A lot, actually. Birth defects caused by inbreeding were rampant in royal families from Russia to Portugal and even in ancient Egypt, where the practice of sibling marriage was considered godly behavior. Hereditary diseases caused by inbreeding get handed down through thin gene pools, particularly in the many cases where intentional close marriage is used...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Dutch archaeologists have discovered the tomb of the Pharaoh Akhenaten's seal bearer, decorated with paintings including scenes of monkeys picking and eating fruit, Egyptian antiquities officials said on Wednesday. The tomb belonged to the official named Ptahemwi and was discovered during a Dutch team's excavation in the Sakkara area, the burial ground for the city of Memphis, the state news agency MENA said, quoting chief antiquities official Zahi Hawass. Akhenaten, the 18th-dynasty pharaoh who ruled Egypt from 1379 to 1362 BC, abandoned most of the old gods and tried to imposed a monotheistic religion based on worship...

Some had names like "Slayer of his Foes" and accompanied the pharaoh into battle. Thousands more were hunted as a ritual of bravery and strength. But only one apparently served as an eternal guardian. A French archaeologist says his discovery of the first preserved lion skeleton in an ancient Egyptian tomb demonstrates the exalted reputation enjoyed by the King of Beasts more than 3,000 years ago. "It confirms the status of the lion as a sacred animal," Alain Zivie reports in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. Zivie's research team discovered the lion's remains in 2001 as they excavated the...

The identity of his mother has long been a mystery, although she is not believed to be Akhenaten's Queen Nefertiti. Some theories suggest the boy king's mother was one of his aunts. "Maia is none other than princess Meritaten, the sister or half-sister of Tutankhamun and the daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti," Zivie said. He said his conclusion was based on the carvings of Tutankhamun and Maia on the walls of Maia's tomb. "The extraordinary thing is that they are very similar. They have the same chin, the eyes, the family traits," he said. "The carvings show Maia sitting on...

A judge has suggested that now that same-sex marriages and homosexuality have become more accepted the next logical step could be to legitimize incestuous relationships. “A jury might find nothing untoward in the advance of a brother towards his sister once she had sexually matured, had sexual relationships with other men and was now ‘available’, not having [a] sexual partner,” Judge Garry Neilson from Australia said. Neilson compared incest to homosexuality, saying that such relationships were once illegal. “If this was the 1950s and you had a jury of 12 men there, which is what you’d invariably have, they would...

Charles Darwin’s discovery of evolution is common knowledge but Darwin the person is barely known. Even on his 200th birth anniversary this year — he was born in England on Feb. 12, 1809 — much has been said about his works but little about his inner life of contrasts. Darwin loved the natural world from childhood. He roamed the wilderness to study insects while neglecting Greek and Latin, the essential subjects. He said of his schooling, “I was considered by all my masters and by my Father as a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard in intellect.” Sent...

A government minister has warned that inbreeding among immigrants is causing a surge in birth defects - comments likely to spark a new row over the place of Muslims in British society. Phil Woolas, an environment minister, said the culture of arranged marriages between first cousins was the “elephant in the room”. Woolas, a former race relations minister, said: “If you have a child with your cousin the likelihood is there’ll be a genetic problem.” The minister, whose views were supported by medical experts this weekend, said: “The issue we need to debate is first cousin marriages, whereby a lot...