Describing the Arab regimes as "tyrannical"... An American minister renews his allegations regarding the weakness of the Arabs' modern achievements

In a very lengthy social media post - about 3,800 words - US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reiterated his recent claims that Arabs have achieved few recent advances, accusing the media of distorting his statements. Kennedy's post, on Friday, through his personal account on the "X" platform, formerly Twitter, comes in the wake of angry reactions sparked by his statements during the election campaign this week in the state of Michigan, where he said that Arab societies have achieved only limited achievements in the fields of arts, sciences and literature since the rise of groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

In addition to widespread condemnations by Arab Americans, including Democratic Senate candidate Abdul Rahman Al-Sayyid, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was criticized by his sister Kerry Kennedy, who said on social media that she was "ashamed" by her brother's "false, cruel and insulting" comments.

In a post on the X platform, Robert Kennedy Jr. wrote that the media ignored his criticism of extremist Islamic elements, with the aim of portraying his comments as racist and anti-Islam. However, he reiterated that there had been “a worrying dearth of scholarly production from the twenty-two Arab countries over the past five decades,” and then provided an extensive comparison between the achievements of Muslims and Jews, at times conflating Muslims and Arabs.

The minister claimed that "almost all Jews" live in democratic societies, while "all 22 Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa are authoritarian dictatorships." The Council on American-Islamic Relations stated earlier this week that these statements come at a time when Muslims and Arabs are facing increasingly intolerant political attacks.

The Council called for the minister’s dismissal against the backdrop of his statements.