Islamic State, Donald Trump and terror on the Reeperbahn

“Stop dem ISIS! Stop dem Terror!”, go the chants. I’d been inadvertently following a protest against Islamic State (ISIS) across the city of Hamburg on a field recording trip, starting at the railway station in Altona, and ending with a major police operation in Steintorplatz at the end of the day.

Midway through the day I reached the famous Reeperbahn, and the anti-ISIS protest was in full swing, flanked by police as it marched down the road – you can see the protest here:

And you can listen to it here:

City version:

For the reimagined version, over a musical recomposition of the original recording, we examine the attitudes and perspectives of various global political leaders to dealing with Islamic State to look at their different approaches and attitudes.

There’s the measured calm of Barack Obama, the ‘with us or against us’ confrontation of George W. Bush and the directness of Theresa May.

In amongst this, Donald Trump outrageously declares that ISIS are “in competition” with him in the real estate business, building a hotel in Syria – able to make one of the biggest global challenges facing western governments into an issue about him, and about profit.

Memory version: