First time hearing about this. I'm surprised the whole region isn't massively degenerated after centuries of traditional incest. The numbers are pretty staggering

I've heard it argued that it could be the reason the middle east is the way it is now as opposed to the world's hub of scientific discoveries and great culture that is used to be.

However, that's racist-adjacent so I doubt there's any actual research or scientific basis for it. They certainly have much higher rates of genetic diseases. As noted in that Wikipedia article: "While babies of Pakistani heritage accounted for roughly 3.4% of all births in the UK (2005), "they had 30% of all British children with recessive disorders and a higher rate of infant mortality," according to research done by the BBC.[46]"