Copenhagen shootings: Charlie Hebdo-inspired?

Denmark’s prime minister has denounced shootings in Copenhagen which killed two people and injured five police officers as a “terrorist attack”.

A cultural centre hosting an event titled “Art, Blasphemy and the Freedom of Expression” was sprayed with gunfire, killing one person.

Among those present was controversial Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who had previously depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a dog.

Shortly afterwards a member of Copenhagen’s Jewish community was shot dead outside a synagogue.

Police later killed a man they suspected of being behind both attacks.

Last month, 17 people were killed in Paris when gunmen attacked the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket.

Prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt described the shootings in Copenhagen as a “cynical act of terror” but added: “We are not in a fight between Islam and the West.”

So what is behind the attacks, and can they be classified as “terrorism”?

Presenter: Nick Clark

Guests

Imran Hussain – spokesman for The Network, an organisation that brings together human rights campaigns in Denmark.

Sindre Bangstad – a social anthropologist and author of the book Anders Breivik and the Rise of Islamophobia.

Jakob Sheikh – an investigative reporter and journalist at the Danish newspaper Politiken.