In a cruel twist of fate, Syrians in Egypt, most of whom are recently arrived refugees, have been hit hardest by burgeoning xenophobic sentiment.

"People shout and scream at us on the street. They ask why we're trying to bring our war to Egypt," a young Syrian said as he waited with his family outside a UN refugee processing center in central Cairo. He -- like most other Syrians I spoke to -- insisted on remaining anonymous.

Syrian-Egyptian relations are historically close -- the two countries even merged briefly in the 1950s under the short-lived United Arab Republic -- but Syrians have suffered from many pro-military supporters' suspicions that they backed the Muslim Brotherhood's rule.

Certainly some Syrians rooted for the Islamist president, a Syrian restaurant owner admitted, "but some went to Tahrir too (the bastion of anti-Morsi demonstrations). Why are they grouping all of us Syrians together?"

Syrian refugees were a common sight on the streets prior to this year's June 30 "corrective revolution." Their food carts spiced up Cairo's street-side fare, they panhandled outside hotels, and an entire family even set up camp outside the Russian Cultural Center.

The food carts and panhandlers are all gone now. "They're too scared to go outside," an Egyptian taxi driver told me, but they're not necessarily any safer in their apartments.

Police have gone door-to-door in a number of neighborhoods, grilling landlords and detaining at least 143 Syrians, according to the UN. Fearful of attack or arrest and unable to get jobs, thousands more are streaming for the exits. Last week alone, 378 registered Syrians closed their files at the UN's refugee office and left the country.

"If it's going to be like this, we're better off back in Syria," said one lawyer from Aleppo who is now working as a waiter. Most of his friends have left, and he's considering following their lead.

It isn't hard to see why or how this happened.

The interim Egyptian government needed a scapegoat to help boost national unity, and the beleaguered, sizeable, and fractured mass of Syrian refugees provided the perfect foil for Egypt's myriad divisions. State and private media did the rest.

Tawfiq Okasha, a popular talk show host, recently delivered an on-air ultimatum in which he gave Syrians 48 hours to leave the country or their homes would be targeted. Days later, he told his viewers: "if you see a Syrian, Palestinian or Iraqi hand them over to the police."

His instructions are keenly followed by many of his fans. As Marwan Mohammed, a student, said: "The Brotherhood hired foreigners -- Syrians and Palestinians -- to do its dirty work. Now we need to find them all."

Nationalists and Islamists disagree on almost everything these days, but both also accuse the United States of playing a nefarious, underhand role in the past few months' proceedings.