500 million Arabs, zero science? RFK Jr.'s claim faces a list of Nobel winners

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a crowd in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Monday that the world's 500 million Arabs do not produce science. His assertion that they do not win Nobel Prizes, Fields Prizes, or Wolf Prizes, nor produce literature, has drawn sharp criticism just days before the midterm elections.

Kennedy made the comments while campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers in a state with a large Arab American population. Rogers has accused his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed has disavowed the group, and President Donald Trump has also accused him of being a member.

Kennedy linked the lack of scientific output to the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. He argued that the organization destroyed the scientific tradition of the 13th century Islamic civilization. He described the resulting societies as stagnant, focused on hatred, war, and victimization.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928. It was banned after its supported President Mohamed Morsi was ousted in 2013. Jordan announced a sweeping ban on the organization last year. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain designated it a terrorist group in 2014. The U.S. has labeled several Middle Eastern branches of the group as terrorist organizations.

Kennedy's claim that Arabs do not win Nobel Prizes overlooks a list of previous laureates. Egyptian law scholar Mohamed El Baradei won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. He shared the award with the International Atomic Energy Agency for efforts to prevent the military use of nuclear energy. Baradei previously chaired the IAEA and served as vice-president of Egypt.

Yemeni journalist and human rights activist Tawakkol Karman was a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. She became the first Yemeni and the first Arab woman to win the award. In 1999, Egyptian-American scientist Ahmed Zewail received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry.

Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988. Jordanian-born Omar M. Yaghi was one of three chemists awarded the Nobel Prize in 2025. Yaghi also won the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 2018. Sir Michael Atiyah, who is of Lebanese descent, won the Fields Medal in 1966.

Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 alongside Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. Former Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Menachem Begin in 1978 after they signed the Camp David Accords.

Critics have reacted quickly to the comments. Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care, called it Kennedy's ugliest episode yet in trafficking racism. Dr. Peter Hotez, founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor, noted that Nobel laureate Zewail would disagree with Kennedy. Hotez pointed out that Arab scientists in the Middle Ages preserved works by Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen.

An HHS representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kennedy is scheduled to be a special guest at the Make Iowa Healthy Again Rally in Des Moines on Wednesday.