During a campaign stop in Michigan, US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made controversial remarks, suggesting that Muslim Arabs lack scientific and literary achievement and fail to win major awards because of the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The claim is not only hasty and factually incorrect; it also reflects racist attitudes and misconceptions about an entire region and religion, and it can be readily disproved.
Muslim Arabs have produced numerous scientists, thinkers and writers who have made significant contributions over the past century. Several are Nobel laureates, including novelist Naguib Mahfouz, diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei, journalist Tawakkol Karman, and scientists Ahmed Zewail, Moungi Bawendi and Omar Yaghi. Many others have contributed substantially to their societies and the world without receiving Western awards.
While the Arab world faces real challenges in knowledge production, these do not indicate an inherent deficit in its people or the overwhelming influence of any single political group. Instead, they reflect historical and institutional conditions that shape the process.
A changing history of knowledge
Human civilizations have not been equal in knowledge production across history. Some experienced scientific and intellectual flourishing while others faced decline and turmoil.
Declines occur not because populations lost mental capacities but because the political, economic, cultural and institutional conditions that allow knowledge to thrive change over time.
The Islamic civilization’s centres—from Baghdad and Damascus to Cairo and Cordoba—were hubs of scientific and intellectual activity for centuries, involving scholars, translators, philosophers, physicians and mathematicians of diverse backgrounds. This prosperity built upon the translation, critique and development of Greek, Syriac, Indian and other bodies of knowledge.
Parts of Europe, meanwhile, experienced significant backwardness in scientific education, yet the continent was not monolithic and those centuries were not uniformly dark. Different regions and periods saw varied intellectual and scientific developments.
European conditions gradually shifted as educational institutions and universities evolved, networks for book and knowledge circulation expanded, and European science interacted with knowledge transferred from the Islamic world and elsewhere.
Historical disparities cannot be used to claim that any group is innately incapable of producing science. Serious historical interpretation focuses on institutions, economics, education, political patronage and knowledge networks rather than innate abilities.
The same principle must apply to Arabs and Muslims today. If Europe was able to change its conditions of knowledge production, it is illogical to assume that contemporary Arab and Islamic societies are bound by fixed limits on their scientific or literary capacities.
Science is universal and not the racial or religious property of anyone. Decline is not a genetic destiny, nor is prosperity an eternal privilege.
Today’s challenges
Rejecting RFK Jr’s generalizations does not mean denying the real challenges facing scientific research in many Arab countries. Serious questions remain about research and development funding, university independence, education quality, freedom of research and expression, institutional stability, the ability to attract and retain scientists, and links between knowledge and the economy.
A society that does not provide researchers with suitable laboratories, grant universities sufficient independence, allocate resources for research, or ensure the continuity of scientific institutions cannot expect results comparable to a society that invests sustainably in these areas.
Wars, conflicts, displacement, brain drain and weak scientific cooperation can also disrupt knowledge accumulation, even when qualified human capital exists. The capacity for thought and innovation is distinct from the ability to translate that capacity into sustainable scientific production; an entire system of socioeconomic conditions, institutions and policies lies between them.
Attributing the challenges faced by contemporary Arab societies solely to a single political group—such as the Muslim Brotherhood—and presenting this as a comprehensive explanation for the state of science and literature among hundreds of millions of people falls short of serious historical or social analysis.
Scientific production is shaped by intersecting variables: state structure, economic policies, education quality, research expenditures, academic freedom, stability, international relations and the capacity for knowledge circulation.
Certain political movements or intellectual trends may affect educational policies or cultural climates in specific contexts. Proving such impact requires evidence and comparative analysis, which RFK Jr would likely fail to provide.
Moving from critiquing an institution or political movement to issuing a judgment on Arabs or Muslims in general constitutes racism, hatred and Islamophobia, because it shifts from analysis to stereotype.
A meaningful response to RFK Jr
The problem with RFK Jr’s statement is not merely its factual inaccuracy but the logic that transforms historical disparities in knowledge production into sweeping judgments about peoples. His words carry symbolic, intellectual and political weight, reflecting a hostile Orientalist stance toward Arab‑Islamic and broader Eastern heritage.
A serious response requires more than recalling past glories or listing Arab and Muslim scientists; it demands turning the discussion into a forward‑looking project.
In the Arab world we need more independent, research‑capable universities equipped with laboratories, sustainable funding, an environment that permits critique and experimentation, policies that retain scientific talent and institutions that link education with the economy and innovation.
We also need a documented, critical re‑reading of the history of sciences in Islamic civilization—one that studies both achievements and failures and examines how scientific concepts emerged, evolved and were transferred between civilizations.
A civilization regains its stature not by reiterating that its ancestors were great but by building institutions that allow new generations to produce new knowledge.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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