Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. published an extensive diatribe on social media on Friday denouncing radical Islam and calling on Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed to condemn the Muslim Brotherhood.
The more than 3,700-word X post came after Kennedy was strongly rebuked by legacy media outlets and the el Sayed campaign for statements he made in Michigan on behalf of Republican challenger, former Rep. Mike Rogers.
During Kennedy’s initial speech on Oct. 27, the health secretary criticized el Sayed for not rebuking the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political movement founded in 1928 that has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States. Kennedy blamed the organization’s fusion of authoritarian politics and religious fundamentalism for creating “stagnant societies” and claimed that Arab Muslims no longer produce scientific achievements or fine literature at the pace that they did in previous centuries.
In his long X post on Friday, Kennedy defended his original position and clarified that his remarks were not about Islam as a religion but rather the extremist interpretation of the Quran as a political and religious text.
“Criticizing Islamism is neither Islamophobic nor racist,” Kennedy said. “Islamism is a violent corruption of mainstream Islam that summons adherents back to the seventh-century ideal of bloody jihad, the homicidal and suicidal religious zealotry that propelled a motley cadre of desert nomads to conquer half the world.”
Kennedy went on to outline the historical development of Islamism through the Muslim Brotherhood, criticizing el Sayed for not condemning an organization that has only brought “closed minds, poverty, starvation, ignorance, oppression, and violence.”
“El-Sayed said nothing about the Brotherhood itself, its ideology, or the Muslim Brotherhood front organizations he works with,” Kennedy said. “A disavowal that names nothing and condemns nothing is a disavowal in name only.”
Kennedy also compared the Muslim world to the societal contributions to Western civilization made by the Jewish people over the centuries, including most recently in the American entertainment and technology industries.
“There is no ethnic or religious group that has contributed more than Jews to the welfare of humanity or to the advancement of liberal democracy,” Kennedy said.
Some welcomed the post and suggested it could signal Kennedy looking to expand his reach either within the administration or establish his foreign policy vision for a potential 2028 presidential campaign.
Ilya Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the conservative Manhattan Institute, called Kennedy’s post “very impressive.”
“Maybe they should move him to a different role – special envoy to combat Islamism or something,” Shapiro said.
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Matt Doyle, a GOP strategist in Ohio, told the Washington Examiner Kennedy’s remarks amounted to “doing what Trump admin officials are expected to do – push back on reporters writing politically slanted stories rather than news.”
“It’s smart business, and would certainly serve him well if he decided to explore a 2028 candidacy, which might seem like an uphill battle even among his Cabinet colleagues,” Doyle said.