ban marriages between cousins?

Canada
January 25, 2007 11:38am CST
Banning marriages between cousins, a practice that is common among Muslims in many parts of the world , and is widespread in Muslim immigrant communities . Marriages between close relatives greatly increases the risk of birth defects and should be discouraged in every possible way. The claim that this has nothing to do with Islam is nonsense . Muhammad married his cousin and then married off his daughter to her cousin , now if you look back and look at the bible who created Adam and Eve , would they not be related , wouldn't that make us all realated if this where the case ?
5 people like this
6 responses
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
25 Jan 07
The Adam and Eve thing makes sense to me from what you stated. Looks to me also they would be related. There is alot of controversial issues regarding the Bible and its meaning and it is really hard for any of to know an answer to it, but we do all question some parts of it, I think. You do raise a valid question here though and who knows if we will ever find out for sure what is right and wrong.
@justreal (2364)
• Canada
25 Jan 07
Some people are fixated on the fallacy that cousin couples pose an intolerable risk to their offspring. However it is likely that we are all descendants of cousin marriages. Before civil laws banning cousin marriages, it was preferable to marry a cousin in some communities as it is to this day in many countries. The cousin marriage taboo is in America today as well.
@addy220 (597)
• Pakistan
25 Jan 07
well i dont thinks os there is any birth defect if we marry in our relative
@xXmeganxX (4421)
25 Jan 07
hi there, ive heard a little about that muslims can marry there cousins etc, but i don't think that's right in a way tho because it is there own family, i really don't know how to explain this in writing, lol. muslims are nice people too! :)
@XxAngelxX (2830)
• Canada
25 Jan 07
I agree .....to some extent if we were to trace our lineage back far enough, we are related.
• Canada
25 Jan 07
I believe for the reasons of the birth defects that can happen to your child is the main reason you should not marry your cousin but then on the other hand this is not always the case either and anyone can have a child who has birth defects . I know a man and wife that are married he found out she was his sister 20 years after they were married and have a couple of children between them , the children are very normal and a good part of sociey . He has never told his wife as after 20 years of marriage and a couple of kids he loves her deeply . In a situation like this should he divorce because he found out something everyone hid from him or should he divorce the woman he is madly in love with just because of ethnics ? So I am not sure how I feel on this discussion as it could be a case of not knowing . Although I would never marry someone that was related to me because I grew up being told this was wrong I do have sympathy for those that were raised differently or were not told of their heritage and family background in cases such as the one I just explained .