Whatever the demented intentions of the murderous movement variously known as Isis, Isil, Daesh or Islamic State, global fear and loathing of this group of crazed criminals is proving a heaven-sent opportunity for many other terrorists and ‘errorists’ around the world to try and appear less evil by comparison.

The governments of Russia and China, for example, two of the world’s most lawless, corrupt and repressive regimes, have seized on the chance to pretend to be combating IS in Syria as a pretext for their actual purpose, support of the murderous al-Assad regime in its war on the majority of its people.

In the allegedly enlightened Western democracies, IS-fueled alarmism is being shamelessly exploited by such political opportunists as the dire Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, in desperate attempts to garner the support of right-wing bigots, neo-Nazis, fundamentalist Christians and other assorted outright crazies.