Clerics sign up Bill & Ted to remove stigma from ‘radical’

One of the posters in the new campaign to promote positive use of the word radical

ISLAMABAD: Hardline clerics across the region have joined forces to launch a poster campaign to remove what they claim is the stigma surrounding the word ‘radical’.

“Because of the efforts of corrupt Western media, being considered radical is now presented to the world in a negative light,” exclaimed fundamentalist Pakistani cleric Abu Stevenson in one of his fiery weekly podcasts. “But not so long ago, radical was thought of as cool and funky, the sort of thing kids wanted to be. We want to get back to those days.”

The campaign, which will begin next week on advertising billboards across North America and parts of Europe, features well known figures who have been known to regularly use the word ‘radical’ in a favourable light, such as film and TV characters like Bill & Ted and Bart Simpson.

“Bill & Ted were, like, totally radical dudes, yet they weren’t branded as international terrorists by Western governments,” said Stevenson. “Which is why we’ve signed up both Bill S. Preston, Esquire and Ted Theodore Logan.”

Stevenson said he hoped the posters would help “soften the image” of radicalism, and bring it “back into playgrounds, skate parks and surf clubs across the world”.