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Book by JK Rowling: A Whole Generation Bewitched - Then Burned as Witchcraft
Photo: Sinead Lynch / REUTERS
In an event streamed live on Facebook, evangelical US pastor Greg Locke had books and films from the Harry Potter and Twilight series burned.
As seen in Thursday's video, supporters of radical Preacher Locke throw objects into a blazing fire.
"It's about our liberation from the demons," Locke announced.
And then: "Your magic must go in the name of Jesus." Before the event, he had asked his followers to ban all occult objects from their homes - such as tarot cards or healing crystals.
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After being removed from the curriculum: Holocaust comic »Mouse« becomes a bestseller in Tennessee
The radical pastor is no stranger: Locke regularly reaches millions of viewers on social media with his hateful messages and conspiracy theories.
There he agitates, for example, against trans*gender or wearers of medical protective masks and spreads the stories of the QAnon movement.
In 2021, the short message service Twitter banned him and permanently blocked his account.
Tennessee books ban ratchets up
The burning followed a Tennessee state school board's controversial decision to ban the award-winning graphic novel Mouse from classes. Author Art Spiegelman's work is a world bestseller and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. In the graphic novel, Spiegelman tells the story of his parents who were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau during World War II. He drew Jews as mice and the Germans as cats. His parents survived the Holocaust, their eldest son died.
The school board of the McMinn district in the US state of Tennessee surprisingly removed the Holocaust comic from the curriculum a few weeks ago.
Since then, sales of the literary classic have skyrocketed, and the authority's decision has been the subject of much debate and criticism.
