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01st Apr 2019

Priests in Poland are burning Harry Potter books

Alan Loughnane

Harry Potter burning

Ah here.

Priests in the northern Polish city of Koszalin burned books they said are sacrilegious this weekend, with some of those burned being JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books.

An evangelical group, the SMS from Heaven Foundation, published pictures of the burning on Facebook.

Photographs show three priests carrying a basket of books and other items, including an African-styled face mask through a church to an outside fire pit.

Priests are seen saying prayers over the fire pit where other items, including a ‘Hello Kitty’ umbrella and a Hindu religious figurine, are also burning.

The Facebook post condemns magic with passages from the bible.

The post, written in Polish, says ‘We obey the word.”

The Harry Potter books are thought to be the best selling fiction series of all time with over 500 million copies sold worldwide.

It’s thought that some hard line Christians object to the centrality of magic in the tales as Harry Potter battles against evil in the shape of dark wizard Lord Voldemort.