A post on Andrew Breitbart's BigPeace today tops the blog's long history of demonizing Muslims, republishing an essay by Danish psychologist Nicolai Sennels, titled, “The connection between Muslim inbreeding and terrorism”:

If there are two things that characterize Islamic culture, they are terrorism and inbreeding. The latest research shows that these two things might be closely connected.

The concept of Islamic terror does not need any introduction. Not everyone might know, however, that seventy percent of Pakistanis and forty percent of Turks are inbred (Jyllands-Posten, 27/2 2009 “More stillbirths among immigrants”). Research shows that the same goes for close to half of all Arabs (Reproductive Health Journal, 2009 “Consanguinity and reproductive health among Arabs”).

First cousin marriages have been the tradition in many Muslim families for innumerable generations. Such marriages increase the risk of negative mental and physical consequences. My article “Muslim inbreeding: Impacts on intelligence, sanity, health and society” details extensive research data on the subject. In brief, inbreeding through consanguineous marriages increases the risk of depression (Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 2009 “Relationship between consanguinity and depression in a south Indian population”) and schizophrenia (American Psychiatric Press, 1982 “The role of genetic factors in the etiology of the schizophrenic disorders”).

The risk of serious illnesses or handicaps increases by up to 1800 percent (BMJ, 1994 “Infant death and consanguineous marriage”). Risk of mental retardation increases with 400 percent (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 1978 “Effect of inbreeding on IQ and mental retardation”). Research shows that the IQ is 10-16 points lower in children born from blood related parents and that abilities related to social behavior and empathy develops slower in inbred babies (Indian National Science Academy, 1983 “Consanguinity Effects on Intelligence Quotient and Neonatal Behaviours of nsari Muslim Children” [pdf]). Such facts might make several pieces fall into place for many people. [Big Peace, 12/20/10]

To further support his odious claims, Sennels goes on to cite -- poorly -- a study by Yusuf Yadgari of the Medical University of Kabul that found, based on the autopsied remains of suicide bombers, “that close to ninety percent [of them] were suffering from severe illness such as blindness, cancer, missing limbs or leprosy.”

Actually, if you click through to the 2007 NPR report on Yadgari's study, the number is 80 percent. More importantly, only 20 percent of bombers were found to have mental illnesses in this study, while 60 percent were suffering from physical illness, like the aforementioned “cancer, missing limbs, [and] leprosy.” While genes play a role in some physical ailments, like cancer, it's not terribly scientific to conclude from autopsies that all these maladies were caused by “inbreeding.”

So who is this not-so-scientific scientist?

It will probably come as no surprise that Sennels has a long history of extreme anti-Muslim rhetoric. In a May 2010 interview, Sennels told online conservative magazine FrontPageMag that he is “completely convinced that Muslim integration will never happen to the necessary extent” and called for “the Western world ... to put a complete halt to Muslim immigration and non-Western immigrants who did not already receive a citizenship.” In a July 2010 open letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron concerning Turkey's campaign for EU membership, Sennels exhorted Cameron to “study the Quran” so he could learn that "[i]t is a criminal book that forces people to do criminal things." A gushing April 2010 interview with Sennels on Rightly Concerned, a blog run by the American Family Association, included these quotes:

The Danes spend 300,000 euros ($400,000 U.S.) a year on social problems created by Muslim immigrants. It would be a far better use of those funds, [Sennels] argues, to use them to send Muslim immigrants back to countries which share their fundamental values, where perhaps they can serve as ambassadors for more free and democratic societies in their countries of origin by taking with them some of the ideas and ideals they observed in the West.

[...]

[Sennels] concludes that Muslim criminality is caused by Islam or “Muslim culture” rather than by social problems in the countries to which they immigrate.

[...]

[Another] myth he explodes is that it is poverty among immigrants which leads to social problems. In reality, he says, it's exactly the reverse. It is the social problems they create for themselves that lead to poverty. He discovered that among most Muslims there is a “very low focus on supporting one's children in school and on one's own education,” and a lack of motivation for creating a professional career. All this combines to produce endemic poverty among Muslim immigrants. In a word, what is missing is the Protestant work ethic. And that is because, well, they're not Protestants. [Rightly Concerned, action.afa.net, 04/08/10]

Given BigPeace's take on Muslims, it's not surprising one of Breitbart's bloggers would cite someone with extreme views like this. But it's a little disturbing.