The Baron of Gates of Vienna blog  posted a controversial  research paper by Nicolai Sennels on "The Connection between Muslim inbreeding and terrorism" on Big Peace'.  Hugh Fitzgerald had posted this on The Iconoclast in August, 2010 . Brig.Gen. Stephen Xenakis, former  Military Psychiatrist and Khadr defense team expert witness, had commented on Sennels' views about Muslim inbreeding and terrorism in a Washington Post op-ed on December 5th, "Radical jihadism isn't a mental disorder":  We note that Gates of Vienna has re-published Sennels pioneering article on his research on young Muslim criminals and their propensity to recidivism  published in the May, NER, "Muslims and Westeners: The Psychological Differences."

But radical jihadism is not a clinical condition, and diagnosing it is not within the domain of psychiatric experts. Radical jihadism is an ideology - and can be embraced by the psychiatrically sane and insane alike.

Beyond being simply unscientific, however, the testimony had another troubling aspect. Welner relied, in part, on the research of a particularly egregious source: Danish educational psychologist Nicolai Sennels.

Welner noted that there are few academic or medical sources on the "future dangerousness" of "radical jihadists who have been apprehended and detained." Sennels, he said, is an exception. Welner described the lengthy conversation the two men had held and said his perspective was informed in part by Sennels's research on Muslim youth whom he treated as a prison psychologist. But Welner wasn't familiar with all of Sennels's written work. As the defense explained during cross-examination, Sennels is also known for inflammatory views on Islam, having claimed that "massive inbreeding within the Muslim culture during the last 1,400 years may have done catastrophic damage to their gene pool." Sennels has described the Koran as "a criminal book that forces people to do criminal things." Welner specifically repudiated these views in court.  

We understand that Sennels has sent the Washington Post a rebuttal to Xenakis' op-ed, which we hope , having seen a working draft, they will see fit to publish.  Whether or not they do, we will post  in full -- giving them time to do it first -- Sennels' cogent rebuttal.