Yes, Muslims are portrayed negatively in American media -- 2 political scientists reviewed over 250,000 articles to find conclusive evidence

Students with the Muslim Consultative Network's summer youth program gather on the steps of New York's City Hall on Aug. 14, 2013, to speak out against Islamophobia. AP Photo/Richard Drew

The warm welcome Americans and Europeans have given Ukrainians in 2022 contrasts sharply with the uneven – and frequently hostile – policies toward Syrian refugees in the mid-2010s.

Political scientist David Laitin has highlighted the role that religious identities play in this dynamic. As he pointed out in a recent interview, Syrian refugees were “mostly Muslim and faced higher degrees of discrimination than will the Ukrainians, who are largely of Christian heritage.”