The Terrorist Threat

Baron Imbert, once Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, was speaking last night (2nd October) on the BBC News about the removal of Sir Ian Blair from the Met. Police. During this he made what I think was an extraordinary statement: that the terrorist threat facing The Metropolitan Police has never been higher.
Eminent people spouting utter bollocks is, I am sure, as common now as it ever was, but this will go down as a pretty good example of the type.
Does he not remember the IRA?
I do.
They were proper terrorists. They terrorised.
I have a sneaking suspicion that (and Baron Imbert isn't alone in doing this) ramping up the "Islamic terrorist threat" is a subtle manifestation of a general shift in national opinion towards being anti-Muslim . If enough people are afraid of Islamic Extremists then that fear will spill over into the wider community. Job done.
But in doing so, we repeat the stupidity of a previous generation when "The IRA" became conflated with "Nationalists". The argument is hopelessly flawed: the IRA are terrorists; the IRA are Nationalists; therefore Nationalists are terrorists. Are we going to be as idiotic again and do the same with "Islamic Extremists" and "Muslims"?
Knowing us, probably.