Jim, You are wrong.
BBC is very careful about sensitivities in things like this, and they have language experts to ensure they make correct usage.

Who are you to challenge their authority?
In this article of 24th they are using the word Islamist as synonymous with Jihadist.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17487320

Some have asked whether the intelligence community, in its rush to adapt to the new threat of Islamist militancy in Europe after such attacks as Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005, might not have neglected traditional police surveillance methods.

Two consecutive gun attacks on soldiers, with a similar weapon and modus operandi, in the same part of France, should have suggested an Islamist attacker.

After all, as French security expert Francois Heisbourg pointed out in an interview for Liberation, suspected Islamist militants had plotted to attack soldiers in France at least twice in recent years

Yet the Islamist theory was also there at an early stage, as police sources told French media, so why was Merah not hauled in right away?

"Here's a guy with the profile of a jihadist and they didn't take any more interest in him," said Mr Heisbourg.