GRAND RAPIDS — U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared Monday at Republican rally for Senate candidate Mike Rogers against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, Egyptian-American physician from Rochester Hills. Rogers has attacked El-Sayed over alleged Muslim Brotherhood ties, which El-Sayed denies.
Kennedy told crowd, verbatim from Bulwark clip:
“There's five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Nobel Prize. They don't win the Fields Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature.”
He continued: “They used to produce; they were first to make books, and in the 13th century, typical Muslim princes had books in libraries that existed in all of Europe. All of that tradition has been destroyed by the Muslim Brotherhood. They have created stagnant societies that do one or two things: hatred, war, and victimization.”
Kennedy framed remarks as critique of Muslim Brotherhood, not Islam, praising Islam's nearly 1000-year golden age, then contrasting with Israel as high-tech superpower. He cited Jewish communities disappearing — four Jews left in Syria, none in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria — Tunisia claim false, still ∼1,500 Jews in Djerba.
Condemnation was swift, bipartisan. Mehdi Hasan noted last year's chemistry Nobel.
Read more - Who Owns The Want?
Fact check — four claims, all false:
1. Don't produce science / don't win Nobel: Palestinian-American Omar M. Yaghi, born to Palestinian refugees in Amman, Jordan, won 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Susumu Kitagawa and Richard Robson for metal-organic frameworks. Also won 2018 Wolf Prize in Chemistry for reticular chemistry. UC Berkeley.
Ahmed Zewail, Egyptian-American, Caltech, won 1999 Nobel Chemistry for femtochemistry. Co-U.S. Science Envoy with Peter Hotez under Obama.
Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian, Nobel Peace 2005 with IAEA.
2. Don't produce literature: Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian novelist, Nobel Literature 1988 for Cairo Trilogy, Midaq Alley. Only Arab Literature laureate, but Arab writers shortlisted repeatedly. 2025 National Book Award winner — Lebanese writer Rabih Alameddine (fiction), Egyptian-American Omar El Akkad (non-fiction) — cited by Zeteo columnist Justin Baragona.
3. Don't win Fields Medal: Fields is mathematics prize — Caucher Birkar, Kurdish from Iran, won 2018 for birational geometry, category includes MENA. Alessio Figalli Italian, but first Arab-origin — Akshay Venkatesh Indian-Australian, not Arab. RFK Jr. claim about Arabs specifically — true no Arab-born Fields winner yet, but Arab mathematicians win other prizes — Elias Stein (Wolf Prize), etc. Lack of Fields does not equal no science.
4. Don't win Wolf Prize: Omar Yaghi 2018 Wolf Chemistry, Hillel Furstenberg 2006/07 Wolf Math (Israeli-American but born Berlin), Abdelwahab El Messiri? Actually Wolf includes many non-Western. Claim demonstrably false.
Historically, algebra from al-Khwarizmi (al-jabr), algorithm from his name, optics from Ibn al-Haytham, medicine Canon of Ibn Sina taught in Europe till 1650, Arabic numerals.
Read more - The Serious Stagnation
Political context — Michigan has highest Arab-American share — Dearborn 55% Arab, 3.5% state population. Remarks made at rally to define El-Sayed opponent. El-Sayed campaign responded: “Another baseless smear to distract from health care.”
Analytically — Health Secretary making anthropological claims about civilization decline attributed to single movement (Muslim Brotherhood founded 1928) is category error. Islamic golden age decline historians attribute to Mongol sack of Baghdad 1258, colonialism, oil curse, not 20th century Islamist group. Kennedy's earlier vaccine, pharma skepticism now extends to cultural history.
No apology as of Tuesday.
*Tags:* #RFKJr #Arabs #NobelPrize #OmarYaghi #GrandRapids #MichiganSenate #MikeRogers #AbdulElSayed #FactCheck #MuslimBrotherhood