Records of Nobel winners born in Arab countries and a rise in regional scientific publishing challenge claims by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during Michigan's Senate campaign.
UNESCO recorded a 64% increase in scientific publications from Arab states between 2015 and 2019. That growth conflicts with Kennedy's assertion that Arabs “don't produce science,” although the agency also describes limits on research capacity across the region.
Kennedy made the remarks while campaigning with Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers in Grand Rapids on Oct. 26. He also said Arabs do not win major prizes or produce literature. He blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for what he described as the loss of a scientific and cultural tradition.
Prize records show winners born in Arab countries. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Omar M. Yaghi, born in Amman, Jordan, and two other scientists for developing metal-organic frameworks. Egypt-born Ahmed Zewail won the chemistry prize in 1999. Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988. The Wolf Foundation awarded Yaghi its chemistry prize in 2018.
UNESCO's 2021 Science Report presents a broader picture of the region's research. It found that universities had expanded while research and development still received a small share of university funding in most Arab countries. The report also identified skilled workforces and reliance on imported technology as research challenges. Its findings do not substantiate Kennedy's explanation involving the Muslim Brotherhood.
The prize records establish the winners' birthplaces and awards. The Council on American-Islamic Relations cited them as examples of Arab achievement in an Oct. 27 statement calling for Kennedy's dismissal. The group said his remarks targeted Arab and Muslim communities, as EconoTimes previously reported in its coverage of the dismissal call.
Kennedy said in an Oct. 30 post that he meant to criticize Islamism, rather than Arabs or Islam. Michigan's general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
