US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has come under widespread criticism from civil rights groups, healthcare advocates and Democratic lawmakers after making controversial remarks about Arabs during a Republican campaign event in Michigan.
Speaking on Monday at an event supporting Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, Kennedy falsely claimed that Arabs had made no significant contributions to science, literature or major international awards.
“There’s 500 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,” Kennedy said.
His remarks were widely condemned as racist and factually incorrect, with critics pointing out that Arab scholars, scientists and writers have received all the awards he mentioned.
Peter Hotez, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine specialising in vaccine development and tropical medicine, cited his late colleague Ahmed Zewail, an Egyptian-American scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999.
Hotez said Zewail, who died in 2016, “would disagree” with Kennedy’s claims.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) strongly condemned the remarks, describing them as “a textbook display of unvarnished racism and bigotry”.
The organisation accused Kennedy of dismissing Arab contributions to humanity and warned that such statements could fuel anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hatred.
The controversy comes amid growing concerns among civil rights advocates over rhetoric targeting Muslims, Arabs, immigrants and ethnic minorities during the US midterm election campaign.
Kennedy also criticised the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organisation founded nearly a century ago, claiming its rise had contributed to the creation of “stagnant societies”.
His comments came as Rogers campaigns against Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim who has faced repeated attacks over his religion.
Republicans have alleged, without presenting evidence, that El-Sayed has links to the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed has publicly rejected the organisation and denied any association with it.
President Donald Trump has also repeatedly targeted El-Sayed during the campaign, including falsely describing him as a “jihadist” and invoking the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when discussing him over the weekend.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy warned that the rhetoric reflected a broader effort to undermine Muslim Americans.
“I really think everyone needs to pay attention to this coordinated campaign to delegitimize Muslim Americans — not just as citizens but as humans,” Murphy said.
Healthcare advocacy group Protect Our Care also condemned Kennedy’s comments, calling them a “wildly racist tirade”.
Kennedy, who has previously promoted anti-vaccine views, was also in Michigan on Monday to announce funding for Detroit’s health department and highlight agreements with hospitals to provide healthier food.
The US Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the controversy.
