Two recent cases in the United States and England are testimony growing Islamophobia in the West. In the first case a young woman, Nabra Hassanen, 17, was murdered as she was walking home after prayers at a mosque near Washington in the early hours of Sunday. Whereas in the latter case a van ran over worshippers leaving Ramadan prayers in London on Monday midnight. In both cases, all the victims were Muslims.

Though the exact nature of the crimes is yet to be known, the Muslim communities in both the countries are calling these incidents hate crimes against Muslims. We must not forget that in times like these, when politics in the west is becoming polarised into the left and the right, it is the role of western leaders to maintain pace in their societies. Terrorist incidents and hate crimes are bother reactions to the fear and hate that Western leaders have only encouraged, from the likes of Donald Trump in the US, to Theresa May and Nigel Farage in the UK.

Through a systematic campaign in media and demagoguery of the politicians gave birth to a new enemy, Islam. The Western media have always deemed Muslims as inherently hostile to democracy and Western liberal values, without realising that unless inclusiveness and tolerance is not protected in their people today, which includes Muslim minorities, their societies will unravel into conflict and war as well.

The reluctance on the part of police to call the recent murder of the Muslim teen in the US a hate crime reveals the decline of liberal and secular values that have been championed by the United States for a long time now.

It is easy to spread fear, and to lead mob hungry for revenge. Fear and hate will generate votes, will increase numbers at the polls, and make sure leaders who are anti-Muslim and tough on minorities will continue to get elected- but in the desire for populism, right wing parties in the West are generating more inter-communal conflict. And while they are those who will rally against this hate, and support their Muslim neighbours in the US and UK, they may be too few in number to dispel hate and generate tolerance, justice and basic rights to human liberty. This is the great failure of the West today, that has begun to strike at its own democratic roots.