US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sparked anger, condemnation, and at the same time ridicule with statements described as generalizing and indicative of racism towards Arabs, and of ignorance of history from a person with a black record at the top of which is his admission of drug addiction and that he used to sniff cocaine from toilet seats.
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In remarks that astonished many commentators, though not surprised some due to the background of the speaker, the US Secretary of State claimed during a Republican Party campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan – which has the highest percentage of Arab-American residents in the United States – on Monday, that “there are 500 million Arabs in the world, yet they do not produce science, they do not win the Nobel Prize, the Fields Medal, the Wolf Prize, or produce literature,” in claims that contradict official records of international awards.
His remarks came during a campaign rally in support of Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers against his Democratic opponent, Abdel Rahman El-Sayed, a Muslim of Egyptian descent. Following in the footsteps of President Donald Trump, Rogers attacked his own cabinet member, Abdel Rahman El-Sayed, linking him to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group the Democratic candidate has previously denied any connection to and publicly rejected.
Kennedy described the people living under the group’s influence as belonging to a “death cult,” claiming that they embrace an ideology based on victimhood, murder, and genocide, and tried to market his words by saying that criticizing the group does not represent hostility towards Islam.
His statements sparked controversy and widespread reaction on social media, with commentators accusing him of racism and ignorance. Some reminded him of Arab figures who won the Nobel Prize, such as the Egyptian scientist Ahmed Zewail in Chemistry in 1999, and the Egyptian chemist Naguib Mahfouz, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988. For example, the Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, and the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet won the same prize in 2015, which is the prize that “the US Secretary of Health and his appointee, President Donald Trump, wish to win,” as one commentator put it.
The commentators reminded the American Secretary, many of whom were non-Arabs, of the Arabs' contributions to human civilization, including algebra, algorithms, and Arabic numerals, which Kennedy uses daily, and which revolutionized human history.
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