“Despite a higher risk of birth defects, marriages and eventual offspring from unions between nephews and nieces will not be banned in the Netherlands.” Why not? “Marriages between cousins are particularly common in Turkish and Moroccan communities and [Health Minister Hans] Hoogervorst said a ban would be ‘disproportionate’ and impossible to enforce.” This from Expatica News, with thanks to seafarious.
Hoogervorst “said he considered the risks of birth defects would be overshadowed by the violation of the personal freedom of choice if he banned marriages between first cousins. . . .
“Besides the slightly higher chance of birth defects, the chance of baby mortality is three to five times higher than non-cousin marriages. The [Christian Democrat] CDA is also concerned about hindered integration and forced marriages. . . . Meanwhile, Minister Hoogervorst said nephew and niece couples stand a 5 to 7 percent chance of having a handicapped child, 1.5 times more than ‘normal’ couples. He said the difference was not large enough to warrant a ban, representing a deep interference in personal lives. . . .
“CDA MP Sterk also said the party’s concerns could not be easily brushed away and that it still saw sufficient reason for a ban. But Minister Hoogervorst said marriages between cousins were deeply entrenched in Turkish and Moroccan culture.”
What do you think will happen when other deeply entrenched features of Muslim culture start to make their way into Western Europe? Will European officials balk at stoning for adulterers, or will they explain how deeply entrenched this practice is in certain Muslim countries?
Hysteria? Fear mongering? Consider this: Hani Ramadan, a prominent Muslim leader in Switzerland and brother of the famed European Muslim spokesman Tariq Ramadan, was dismissed from a teaching position in Geneva after publishing an article in the French journal Le Monde in September 2002, defending stoning as punishment for adultery.