Dillon - I've mentioned quite a few times in this thread that I support the Prevent strategy. I haven't labelled it as Islamophobic - but applaud the efforts to eradicate/mitigate/lessen the chances of numpties being tempted to carry out 7/7 type attacks.
The Home Office site says the risk from International Terrorism is severe - as is the risk of NI terrorism in Northern Ireland (severe). In NI, last year, there were 99 actual bombs according to the official stats (i.e. not something I made up).
I would indeed worry if Al Qaeda militants started a campaign in Britain and were even half as successful as the NI terrrorists. I am happy, but not complacent, that the 'jihadists' in the UK have largely resembled the guys in the film 'Four Lions' (i.e. numpties). However, even numpties sometimes get things right and hence why I support Prevent and other initiatives.
Overall, taking the UK as a whole, the stats do show that 'Islamic fundamentalist terrorism' is empirically less of a threat than non-Islamic terrorism. That is what the stats show. When the stats change (and I hope they don't) - then we can draw different conclusions.
Just imagining that the numpties are Al Qaeda crack troops is not going to change reality.
I don't blame the government for being cautious. But I do blame the 'phobes for blowing things out of proportion.
Cheers,
Shafique