The Copenhagen Shootings.

On Saturday (14/2/15) a meeting was held at a cafe in Copenhagen, Denmark to discuss freedom of expression in art and culture. Although small this discussion group was attended by Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks who has lived under threat of death since 2007 after drawing a cartoon of the Muslim Prophet Mohamed.

Shortly after it had begun the meeting was attacked by a lone gunman who fired off a volley of shots that killed film director Finn Norgaard and wounded three police officers.

This very public attack was clearly intended to intimidate other members of Danish society and beyond into not depicting the Prophet Mohamed in any way. As a result it was very clearly an act of terrorism and should be described as such.

Around 7 hours later the same gunman attacked a Synagogue around a 3km (1.8 miles) from the scene of the original attack. In this shooting a 37 year old Jewish security guard was killed and two further police officers were wounded. Again this very public attack was intended to encourage the wider Muslim community to attack and kill Jews simply for being Jewish so again it is considered an act of terrorism.

Later that night the gunmen attempted to return to his apartment close to the Norrebro train station which the police already had under surveillance. On being confronted by the police the gunmen again opened fire prompting the police to return fire killing him.

The reason why the Danish authorities were quickly able to identify the gunman as Omar El-Hussein - a cultural Muslim of Arab descent - is that he had recently been released from prison following a two year sentence for assault and weapon possession. This means that he very much fits the profile of a disaffected young Muslim who have been exported in large numbers from Europe to fight alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

As a result I'm confident that El-Hussein was a self-directed lone-wolf terrorist in the mould of Michael Zehaf-Bibeau who attacked the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa in October 2014 and Zale Thompson who attacked two New York City police officers with an axe a day later. El-Hussein was obviously prevented from fulfilling his dream of joining ISIL because he was in prison.

This attack will obviously call into question Denmark's policy of sending young men to fight for ISIL. However it should also call into question its policy of not only allowing ISIL fighters to return to Denmark but also rewarding them with special assistance in housing, education and employment rather then jailing them for their role in what are clearly the most serious crimes against humanity.

I think the main trigger behind El-Hussein's self-directed attack was him finding out that Vilks would be attending a meeting close to his home. However I think that the US' response to ISIL's murder of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasaesbeh which has been dubbed the "Valhalla Incident" played a role. After all the Norsemen/Vikings who invented the concept of Valhalla are the ancestors of modern day Denmark. El-Hussein was also no doubt spurred on by the media frenzy that was triggered by the Chapel Hill shootings in the US and Saudi Arabia's much publicised big pro-ISIL propaganda effort that flooded Twitter with the hashtag #AssadHolocaust over the weekend.

With a cartoonist who had depicted the Prophet Mohamed being targeted followed by Jews being targeted simply for being Jewish it is clear that January's attacks in Paris, France that began with the magazine Charlie Hebdo also provided inspiration. Although the Paris attacks were clearly directed by ISIL's Yemen branch Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) while the Copenhagen attacks were self-directed it is no coincidence that Lar Vilks featured on the AQAP hit-list right next to Stephane Charbonnier - the editor of Charlie Hebdo.

The outrage from the Paris attacks provided the Houthi group that has ruled Yemen for the last thousand or so years with the final push they needed to overthrow the Saudi puppet government that was imposed on Yemen in 2011 in order to allow ISIL a safe space to spread terrorism across east Africa.

As such it is hard to explain why the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) responded to the Copenhagen attacks by yesterday (15/2/15) unanimously adopting a resolution calling on Yemen's government to step aside in order to once again provide ISIL with safe haven.

After all even a quick reading of the UN's own charter would have made it clear that the UNSC has no authority to even entertain such a resolution.

16:25 on 16/2/15 (UK date).