Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, one of Saddam Hussein’s top aides, has been in the news lately. So I see his picture, and I wonder to my self, “where does he get that red hair? He looks like he could be an Irish boy to me!” Well?
Well, every now and again some recessive genes manage to make their way out into the world.
Perhaps there was an Irishman in his past.
Yes, it is.
…like a red-headed step-Sunni.
Actually, aren’t Europeans descended mostly from neolithic farmers who came out of the “Middle East” starting a few thousand years ago (later joined by Proto Indo-European horsemen).
Instead of thinking this gut must be the result of a roll in the sand between an Irish Guard and a Beduoin temptress, perhaps a few of those Middle Eastern farmers that went into Europe were of Izzat’s relatively rare type. Through the “founder effect”, Europe got a farly extensive share of red haired peoples, especially along the remaining advance guard of these Neolithics (the Pictish peoples in Scotland are one of the longer enduring groups).