The UK is going through a bit of a crisis these days involving islamic arranged marriages involving "rural Pakistanis". In communities with a high percentage of people from rural Pakistan approximately 50% of arranged marriages are marriages between first cousins (your dads brothers daughter) and as we know, Inbreeding causes birth defects, deformities and mental disabilities. Figures suggest that 1% of births in the UK are births involving people from rural Pakistan, But this 1% of total births accounts for 33% of all birth defects in the UK. This is quite a problem and it's about time the law regarding marrying a family member is enforced.
It would be impossible. You'd need to rewrite their beliefs for that to happen and not country laws, unfortunately.
Start putting people guilty of incest in prison and it would stop over night. The trouble is we pander to peoples beliefs too much.
OP, do you have a source for this? I'm not sure where I stand on intra-family marriage, but I think it is a little hypocritical that people are ok with men marrying each other, but cousins can't marry. Which one turns the institution of marriage more upside down?
I don't mind them marrying so much, I just don't want them reproducing and creating invalid offspring. I would be against gay marriages if gay marriages accounted for a grossly unproportional percentage of deformed or mentally retarded babies. It's not about the institution of marriage. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3342040.ece
Even though Islamic arranged is not quite the right words here, as the type of marriage mostly comes from culture, i, having seen a few of close relative marriages, believe that it should be strictly avoided. For the sake of the children.
Inbreeding is a problem and a law definitely needs to be enforced. But, it shouldn't forbid marriages or even sex within the family. It only needs to check childbirth. The law should ideally say that all incestual relationships should involve use of contraceptives. Some of you are probably going to say, "That's impossible, we can't stop people from having babies once they're married; let's intrude on their personal choices and punish brothers and sisters that sleep with each other." This, I feel, is a display of the legal system's incompetence. The idea of incest makes me puke, yes, but I understand that there will be people who love it as much as I hate it. The only problem here is inbreeding and that is exactly what you should be focusing on... NOT Islam.
This is not a matter of religion, it is a matter of demographics, perhaps they should source for brides or bridegrooms from other Muslim communities in UK or back in Pakistan.
Do you believe marrying a distant cousin is incest??? It is not about religion, but about customs and traditions. Patils marry Patils, Brahmins marry Brahmins, Yadavs marry Yadavs, we see it everyday. How do you define incest, and do these individuals fall into that category? I agree that marrying into family may cause birth defects due to singling out of defective genes, but I felt offended by the use of the word incest, without defining it.
This is not to do with Islam. It is do with culture and tradition of Pakistan. What is the need of putting such a title for?
Don't worry buddy, the OP does not have the mental capacity to understand such simple things. Everything evil is suppose to start with Muslims and Islam. Thats a really narrow worldview, filled with hate for "other" people's way of life... But you can't blame him for his dysfunctional brain, can you?
Of course, It's much better to sweep problems under the carpet for the sake of some religions precious, fragile feelings.
Prison is not going to stop someone's cultural belief. If they feel its part of their culture and who they are they'll continue to practice it no matter what, even if they met death because of it.
There will probably be a few sick perverts who are still willing to impregnate a family member on the command of their parents, But it will stop a lot of them. And even if it doesn't, Having sex with a first cousin is illegal in England and the law should be enforced regardless if the illegality prevents the crime being committed or not.
I couldn't agree more Stox. If it is illegal then they must face the courts but stopping them would be the problem as they probably don't see anything morally wrong with it. Its kind of similar to what the U.S. authorities faced with the Mormons and Polygamy.