LONDON - The UK govt is recruiting prominent UK Muslims to perform in a govt-backed advertising campaign aimed at preventing people in Pakistan from engaging in extremist activity, it is learnt. The three-month public relations offensive, called 'I Am the West', consists of television commercials and high-profile events in regions such as Peshawar and Mirpur. It is being funded by the Foreign Office which is paying up to 400,000 for a pilot project. Starring in the first three ads are Sadiq Khan, the Communities Minister, Jehangir Malik, the UK manager of Islamic Relief, English cricketer Moeen Ali and the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Chaudhry Abdul Rashid, who is from Mirpur. Mirpuris represent around 70pc of UK's Pakistani population. According to a project synopsis, the target audience is 15-25-year-old male who are 'less than well-educated and worldly wise, but potentially susceptible to extremist doctrines'. If successful, it will be implemented in Egypt, Yemen and Indonesia. The original proposal to the Foreign Office came from Deen International, an organisation set up specifically for the project and headed by Khurshid Ahmed, chair of the British Muslim Forum. Khurshid Ahmed told The Nation that the idea arose from the attempted terrorist attacks on Glasgow airport. 'I did a number of visits to Pakistan to look at attitudes. Levels of hostility were increasing and there was lots of misunderstanding about how the situation was being described in the media out there', he said. 'The pilot involves nine 30-second television commercials, supported by radio commercials, scheduled across a number of channels. They are due to appear on Pak TV screens next Monday. The central theme of 'I Am the West' is to assert that there is no contradiction in being a Muslim and being British. The synopsis says: 'Muslims are equally proud of being both and certainly espouse the belief that violent extremism is not propagated in their name'. The campaign has four key aims: to ensure Pakistanis realise the West is not 'anti-Islamic', that UK society is not 'anti-Islam', to demonstrate the extent to which Muslims are integrated into UK society and to stimulate and facilitate 'constructive debate' on the compatibility of liberal and Muslim values.