If your going to ban all books that you don't understand or you haven't read your going to be at this a long time lady.I would be more likely to go on a shooting rampage after reading the newspaper than after reading Harry Potter it's more disturbing to me than a fantasy book LOL.

it has witchcraft in it, so of COURSE it's evil. even if it is labeled as fiction. *slaps forehead* seriously, how thick-headed to you have to be to believe that the harry potter books are 'evil'?

hmm. *rearranges words* CHURCH........... ......................... ...................STATE In addition...yes. Wicca is a recognized religion - I should know as I AM Wiccan. And that has WHAT exactly to do with this argument? The books do not advocate Wicca in any way.

OMGROFLOL xDDD the poor woman is C R A Z Y "SNOWHITE PROMOTES WITCHCRAFT!!!" Her kids (if she has any) must be sooooo embarassed xD

I think these kinds of people are just gay. Their children are not forced to read or even look at the books.

WHAT!?!? Those were Amish schools, and they don't even read Harry Potter! They have NOTHING to do with hp, and yet this insane woman blames hp..... THIS WOMAN IS SO HOPELESSLY IGNORANT!!!!!! UGH!!! You guys have no idea how much this infuriates me. I mean, she has every right to not like them (Yes, I know, it's very hard to believe that somebody would hate hp) but to appeal without even reading them... Apparently she finds the books so disturbing she says she's never completely read any of them. More like: Apparently she's so lazy she's never completely read any of them. ************This is so unfair. There are soooooooo many problems in the world today (Global warming, animals dieing out, rainforests being cut down, pollution ect.) an yet this ignorant woman complains about A CHILDRENS BOOK SERIES!!! Oh... Grr..... How much this infuriates..Grr!**** A nd, hp is most certainly not 'Evil'. Do we run around casting "Stupefy" and "Avada Kedvada"? I think not! We know hp isn't real, (Although for most of us it is our greatest wish, myself included) and don't over react to it! We know it is a ****Fiction*** book series, and don't do anything more than that. OK, so we may create fanclubs, but football teams do to! (Nothing against football teams, just usuing you as an example) But nooooooooooooooooooo Laura Malfoy oops.. I mean Mallory, lol, we don't go banning football teams, where people are injured and tackled everyday, now do we!???????? Tell me what you think! ~Gryffingirl99/ Lauren

sigh. you'd think she'd have plenty of time to pursue this silly appeal...yet she doesnt have time to read the actual books she's trying to ban? whatta wierdo.

BS! It is against the forming of our CONSTITUTION! It is against the FIRST AMENDMENT. I hate it when parents decide for other parents that they are making the wrong decision and make it for them. It is the parnnt of the child's decision. Even then it may not be 100% accurate decision.

omg get over it woman...shiesh this is gettin rediculous.....i am a horrible speller. but seriously, wut made her think the court would do wut she wanted this time???? i mean serously ppl gimme a break. shes just gotta get over it. life is depressing...serioiusly there are so many ppl out there who cant stand harry potter**cough cough** and not enuf to support the ones who do. i like practically worship harry potter but i dont yell at the ppl who dont like it or n e thing....i just let them say wut they wanna say but i mean seriously if the court ruled against u once dont u think they will rule against u again???? when will whe learn.....she will probably press charges again if shes allowed......i mean come on....really.......seriou sly guys i have read all the books 20 times at least and i have never wanted to become a witch. moreover, i am a confirmed methodist and i dont think it matters if u read a book that has wizardry of witchcraft in it as long as you dont take it seriously. let me remind u all this is just a book and not a dirty stinking bible of wizardry or summ........well i think this comment has been quite long enough....please let me no wut u think... ~!~rebecca~!~ rip dumbledore...

I find it interesting that this woman has brought more attention to Wicca and devil worship (albeit two very different concepts- another sign of her ignorance) than anything JKR has written. From my understanding, the Bible Beaters think their best anti-Potter argument is that it intrigues children to learn more about the "occult." In my opinion, Laura has openly and purposedly given more information to start a search on the occult than any Harry Potter book. Her speach could have just as likely enticed a child to learn about the terms Wicca and devil worship as Harry Potter books enticed a child to learn more about magic. As a parent, I prefer my child type in "magic" or "wizard" into a search engine rather than "devil worship" or "occult." And even as a Catholic, I think she ought to educate herself before she starts throwing stones. Interstingly enough, if you google "wicca" you can link to Laura and not Harry Potter.

For heaven's sake, lady. Oops! Did I mention heaven? Better watch my back, or one of you might sue me!

This may or may not have been said before, but I just wanted to voice my opinion (this will be long-winded, by the way): I happen to have a wide knowledge of Wicca (having once upon a time followed it) and respect it as a relegion. It is not about "magic circles" or any of the crap that people seem to think of as being connected to it. The only reason I can see for that connection is that Wicca is all about channeling energy for healing and white magic. It is also built around the principle that each of us posses a certain amount of power, weather "magic" or not, and can use that through force of will to help others. Perhaps this woman is scared of "other worldly" powers, or thinks that only one force (namly whatever "God" she believes in, if any) control our cosmos and is repulsed by the fact that anyone else could think otherwise. Maybe she is simply overprotective of her children and does not want them exposed to "heathen" beliefs. Either way, that is not any of my buisiness. What is my buisiness, is that she seems to think that J K Rowling, when writing the Harry Potter series, encorperated Wiccanism into the books. As anyone who is vaguely familiar with the relegion and books can tell, punching telescopes and centaurs have nothing to do with anything remotly Wiccan. I also nearly choked from laughing so hard when I read that one of her reasons for wanting the books removed was because of the above. Let me say this loud and clear, and hope that someone will communicate this to her before she makes a fool out of herself: Even if the books DID encorperate Wicca (which, as I have already discussed, they do not), even if papes and pages were written about Harry, Ron and Hermione lighting scented candles and dancing arounf penticles, how on earth are those grounds for a book to be removed from a library? Can I just walk down to Copley and demand that they remove all bibles from the victancy because I don't agree that Mary's veil was blue?

I live in Georgia--probably 3 or so hours away from her... ah--I don't know even where to start with her. But I do wish that someone who has acually read the books or just read one, would try to ban it. I really would love if someone did that. I wouldn't even be mad--if someone who read one book and wanted to ban it and gave quotes and parts of the book that were 'evil' I would really enjoy listening to someone who had a valid argument. Read just one book in the series before you try to ban it. Please. Too long for you? That's OK! There are things called audio books that you can listen to without having to read those difficult, nasty words...:P

Thought I was done? *evil laugh* Too bad... I have a bit more to say (my keyboard was just acting funny): *ahem* Anyway, I just thought that the pure prejudice and obvious relegious discrimination of this was just astounding. That was short :) If anyone disagrees, agrees or has something random to say about this, please email me: anderinna1 at gmail dot com

Opaque, I agree with your comments. (and there sure was many:p) Nah I enjoyed reading your incite to the subject. A main point of one of my comments posted above was that maybe I should walk into a library, and demand that they ban all books that include christian or catholic believes or practices just because I, myself, disagree. But no, I will not do that. I may disagree with it, I may disagree with what is written in it, but I do not have the RIGHT to deprive people from reading it. If they enjoy it, follow it, believe it, all the power to them. We live in a (hypothetically) FREE country. We should be aloud to read what we wish, when we want to. I think it is up to the PARENT or GUARDIAN to determine what your young child should read. Not a stranger.

Posted by HPFANTimothy 1 day ago Posted by AnyaMarcos 8 hours ago Christians should just stick their kids in private Christian schools, or homeschool them. More and more, we see evidence that Christians aren't fit to be around other people. Myself: OMG YOU ARE AN IDIOT WEIRDO ANYAMARCOS! There's NOTHING wrong with us Christians! Just because ONE Christian like this woman disagrees with something DOES NOT mean that the rest of us are starnge. It's people like AnyaMarcos who start to cause racism, sexism and being biased. If you continue to act like that, your going to be a really weird twisted person... Posted by AnyaMarcos 15 hours ago HPFANTimothy, shut up. Everyone here remembers the trouble you caused here a few weeks back. Were you hoping they had forgotten? You've already proven yourself to be an idiot weirdo. I hate Christians, and it is my right to. It is a disgusting reigion that teaches hatred. Oh and PS: Jesus called. He said get out of his fanclub, he hates you. :-) Guys, guys! You see what this is doing? You see what Laura has acheived? She is turning us against each other! Divide and conquer! HPFANTimothy, yes just because one Christian is like that doesn't mean we all are, but I'm sure AnyaMarcos wasn't trying to be racist or sexist or anything. AnyaMarcos, HPFANTimothy was overreacting, but before you go saying that Christianity teaches hatred, think of Laura. She hasn't read the books, and by what you've said you obviously haven't flicked through a Bible lately. You've got a right to state your opinion, but please! Research your arguments. Now, what's most important here? Petty arguments about religions, or a wonderful fiction series we all love and want to defend. Think before you speak (or type). I hate being the middleman. Please get over this quickly, guys.

I'm not religious and don't believe of the teachings in the bible (i used to be christian so im not just some idiot) and even I agree with AriaAlways, you should research before you argue

I am 34 yrs old and I love these books . I talk about the stories with my daughter all the time. The people who say the books are a bad influence are not confident in their ability to raise their children. If they were confident in their parenting skills they would be concerned with their children being wrongly influenced by anything. I think JK Rowling has done an excellent job on the series.

I'm christin. People are so wrapped up. Sleeping Beauty! I classic! Harmless!

AriaAlways ur soo right!!! u guys should calm down there, it sounds like there just looking for some drama to start up in here....

OMG AnyaMarcos? What kind of person are you? I am sorry that I overreacted on you earlier, but you hate Christians? And you have a problem with other religions? Can you not remember what happened in the days of Adolf Hitler? In World War II? When that terrible and evil man (and a Christian I must regret) killed innocent Jews just because he had a problem with their religion? Because he hated them! And now you are just reminding me of him! Telling me that you hate my religion, I am a Catholic, and there is nothing NOTHING wrong with us. And I got terribly offended when you said 'Jesus doesn't want me in his fan club.' My grandmother would be absolutely disgusted if I showed her your comment. I know that you probably live hundreds and hundreds of kilometers away from me but you should be happy that I didn't. I am sorry to say this but you make me sick! Blaming a religion for no reason. What do you have against us Christians? What did we do to you? I'm asking you that question once...

Oh no! I posted on my sister's mugglenet account, EmMaWaTsOnFaN707! Would it ever take her a little bit of time just to logg off on my computer user? lol! Anyway, everything I said before on the account EmMaWaTsOnFaN707 (my sister's). That's a really horrible thing to say AnyaMarcos, 'hating chrisitans,' and I am happy that Mugglenet decided to delete your comment. They obviously saw that something was wrong with it! I've never been more offended in my life! 'Jesus wants to kik you out of his fan club.' Pah! What kind of person are you?

Ok, I'm a 26-year-old that LOVES reading the Harry Potter books and I follow/practice wicca and paganism. The Harry Potter books are in no way or in any close proximity of the wiccan religion. If I could fly on a broomstick, wave a magic wand to get what I want, or make a potion to give me strange gills to swim underwater, wicca would be even sweeter. To all the religious hyopcrites out there, wiccas major line in the creed is "An' it harm none, do what thou will" Meaning, do what you like in wicca just don't hurt anyone or do it intentionally. People have got to learn that different religion or different belief in a faith does not mean they are evil. I would never intentionally cast a spell on someone I didn't like. Wicca also rules that what you put out in life comes back 3 fold to you. Let's just leave the close minded people alone, they have enough issues to deal with :)

I am a really strong christian and love the harry potter books! instead of wasting time fighting against a set of books fight against something which is really evil, think of all the bad things going on in the world and the people who need the love of God!This is not the way to make a stand it will only spread hatred! plus no one i know who has read the books has ever had ideas about practising witchcraft, even my minister reads them!

i am curious, what in her mind gave her the idea that harry potter was either satanic or wiccan. satatan worshipper do not use wand, neither do wiccans. wiccans do more of the candle, chanting thing. anyway wiccan is a religeon (i think) and if someone wrote a book on christianity (or whatever she is) i bet that there would not be a single wiccan go up and say that it is not right to expose children to such tinhgs. i myself am baptist and i want to be a fantasy novelist and if i am ever published will she go against my writing to. because she is an adult female i have no doubt that she has read a fantasy novel which can have graphic sex. ha, beat that!

i am mad again!! hp is away to escape the drama of the real world and focus on the drama of the fake world. never in my ;life have i ever been vio;lent because of hp. it actually gives me ambition to become a novelist. so far only 20 out of763 characters are wiccan and only 1 of them is evil. ps i don't play with guns

What I think would have been awesome is if Laura Thompson showed up to the hearing, like she mentioned on MuggleCast.

Why is she trying so hard to get these books banned? It's not like she HAS to read them. Sure she can keep them away from her own kids, but ya know what? I think they're probably reading them behind her back. If she was my mom, I would be sooooooo embarassed by her. She must really not have a life to waste so much of her time on trying to get a book banned. I'll bet even if they did get banned from Gwinnett County school libraries, kids would find other ways to read them. Because of the Harry Potter books, kids are actually reading more and learning more. If she hasn't even read the books thoroughly, she has no right to say ANYTHING about them. HARRY POTTER ROCKS!!!!!!!

This woman is an idiot! SHe should just go jump off a cliff!

This woman gives Christians a bad name. I go to church every Sunday, Wednsday, and when ever something goes on at church. Everyone at my church has read the books. And they see nothing wrong with them. I'm very sorry to all the Wiccans for this womans stupidity. I have friends who are Wiccan and Atheist and other religions, but I'm not going to shove Jesus down their throughts if they don't want to hear it.

What an idiot, the Harry Potter books are AGAINST EVIL! There are much more disgusting things going on in this world than kids reading a book! She should be sent to jail for the worlds biggest IDIOT! I bet you she has never even read the books, she just looks at the cover. And listens to other people(more idiots,great) say there evil! If you ask me she is the evil one!

Maybe she should go have tea with the pope... Cause I think he's the only one that doesnt think she's off her rocker...

cutupangel423, my thoughts exactly, and zachychase, the most logical person on here. :)

lol, omg. Get a life.

I'm not even going to comment on this woman's beliefs about the HP books. She is an adult over the age of 21 and is allowed to think what she wants. BUT that does not give her the right to decide what I am going to think. If I want my children to read the Harry Potter books (and read them myself) I have the right to do that. I don't understand this whole banned books idea anyway. All of the books on the list are still in print and can be purchased at any Barnes and Noble or Borders. Most of them were required reading when I was in high school. (Does that show my age?) If you remove everything that might be considred "bad" how are you going to teach your children the difference? That is not restricted to the HP books. Summer of My German Soldier, Huckleberry Finn, Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men... all of those books were a valuable part of my education and showed me different lifestyles and different points of view. Knowing these things helped to shape my point of view and let it be an educated one, rather than beign spoonfed what I was supposed to believe.

And just what is so wrong with the Wiccan religion anyways? It's a peacefull one , "if it harms none, then do as ye will". Harry Potter doesn't promote Wicca either, and who cares even if it did? No ones forcing anyone to read it if they don't want to, it's just there if you DO choose to read Harry Potter.

oh..and another thing too, I am Wiccan, so I know that it isn't some evil devil worship baby's blood eating cult. Really, what if Wiccans got together and tried to ban every book that mentions something christian? Well I guess we'd have to ban Harry Potter then, because, as Laura Mallory is too lazy to find out, they celebrate Christmas and Easter in the Harry Potter books!

That's just illogical. This woman can't make a good argument, and she's even trying to cover up why she hasn't read any of the books. At least we know she's probably not going to win

Oh my gosh. Is this woman stupid? As we can see, she has not studied her religions very throughly. I am Wiccan, and the witchcraft in Harry Potter is absolutely NOTHING like Wicca. Don't confuse them. [stupid woman] Who cares if witchcraft is being pushed into our mainstream, Maybe people will start learning to be more accpeting of people and things that are different than them. [obviously this woman has yet to learn this valuable lesson.] Do your research before you make an ass out of yourself, Mallory. -tomizzle

All this stupidity makes me want to cast spells on my enemies. I have an 'evil' tingling in my spine. This makes me want to hop and my broom and just reek havock over all christians. Theres only one solution for this "feeling" It must be that goddamn Harry Potter.

Barmy Old Bat...She isnt going to win this one!

Alright... Basically, removing any book that MAY cause problems (Even though I don't see how HP could) wouldn't help anyways. Kids will find a way to read or view any books, movies, video games, ect that they want. Besides, the schools would not only have to take out bestsellers like HP and LOTR, but also stuff like Shakespeare's works, The Witch of Blackbird Pond (amazing and classic, btw), Tuck Everlasting, any adventure stories, including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. So if they decided to take out the series, kids wouldn't be able to read at all. It's a FICTION series, anyways, which is what seperates it from NONFICTION... (

i dont know guys, this lady has a point. after reading Harry Potter i just felt this surge of evil pulsing through me. i started muttering incantations under my breath, i made voodoo dolls, and i attempt to curse everyone who bothers me. i also never go out in daylight. especially in certain parts of the book, like when Sirius and Buckbeak go free, when Harry and Ginny start going out, when you find out Lupin and Tonks are in love, and evil stuff like that, it just makes me want to do something crazy like shoot up a school. darn you Harry Potter and your mind-warping evils.

i agree with iceboots nd everyone else...

here we go again...

That's despicable. She's using a terrible natioanl tradegy to prove her point. The gunmen who attacked those schools didn't do it "in the name of Harry Potter" or something like that. This lady is full of crap.

What really gets me about all this is that she is comparing these books to the religion of Wicca! I myself am a Wiccan and can tell you right now, that a lot of the things in the Harry Potter books make me laugh because they are so inacurate to the religion. In addition, Wiccans are peaceful, EARTH worshipers, not Satinist. If she would just pull her head out of her butt for a second and a half to actually find out about what she was talking about, we wouldnt be having this problem. There is no chance that Harry Potter is going to turn these children into Satinist because there are NO satanic themes in the books. The only danger is children running around with sticks screaming "Accio" at the plate of cookies mommy just made -.-

Seriously people come on!!! Its just book (that millions and millions of people around the world are in love with including me!!! yes i may obsessed but i am not talking about that right now....) That lady has serious problems!!! I bet she's mental!!!!

oh dear! somebody here has a lil attitude problem!! cmon! she hasnt even read the books!!!! wut a je.rk!!! there are weird people on this planet!

One more thing I have to say... This woman absolutely has no idea of what she's talking about... She's incompetent, and ignorant... I just read another article in which she said... "On her complaint form, she suggested they be replaced by C.S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia� AHhhhhh and how would that be any diff, or better??? Don't get me wrong I'm not dissin Narnia, I loved it too... It's just that well in Narnia as well there's a witch, death, violence, blood sacrifice, and magic (cause I don't think that through my cupboard, leads to a magical land) She clearly hasn't read this either... here's the url to the article http://www.gwinnettdail ypost.com/index.php?s=&ur l_channel_id=32&url_subch annel_id=&url_article_id= 14074&change_well_id=2