GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — A Danish psychologist who believes Muslims are raised to be aggressive and that inbreeding has damaged their genes informed a damning expert opinion of the risk Omar Khadr poses to public safety, court heard Wednesday.
Under cross-examination by defence lawyers, Dr. Michael Welner said he talked to Nicolai Sennels before coming to the conclusion that the Canadian-born Khadr was “highly dangerous” – an opinion he gave Tuesday on the first day of Khadr’s sentencing hearing.
Sennels, who is based in Copenhagen, has written extensively on Muslims, including one article introduced into evidence Tuesday. “If a Muslim does not react aggressively when criticized he is seen as weak, not worth trusting and he thus loses social status immediately,” Sennels wrote.
In another article, Sennels, 34, attributed a host of problems within the Islamic world to intermarriage among first cousins. “Massive inbreeding within the Muslim culture during the last 1,400 years may have done catastrophic damage to their gene pool.”
The seven military officers on the jury will decide on a sentence for Khadr, who pleaded guilty on Monday to five war-crimes charges.