Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Accuses Arabs of Producing Neither Science nor Literature

At a Republican rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on October 26, 2026, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that the world’s 500 million Arabs produced neither science nor literature and did not win Nobel, Fields, or Wolf prizes. He was backing Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, who faces Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, whose parents immigrated from Egypt, ahead of the November 3 election. Kennedy blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for destroying an Arab and Muslim intellectual tradition and said his remarks had nothing to do with Islamophobia. Michigan has the highest share of residents reporting Arab ancestry of any U.S. state, at about 2.2% according to 2024 data.