Despite the fact that the 9/11 attacks apparently sent many into the church pews, the US is still largely a secular society, not a religious one. By that I mean we do have separation of church and state, which is not the case in all countries, including European countries like Ireland and Poland, although they are becoming more and more secularized all the time.

Fundamentalists have the right to complain, protest, burn books, hold prayer vigils, and do whatever else they feel necessary to get their message heard by the general public. What they don't have the right to do is to ban the books (the Harry Potter books were the #1 target of the busy little book banners in 2000), and attempt to prevent others from reading them.

So let us be proactive, as Susan suggests. Has your local library or school library been the target of a "ban the books" campaign? If so, climb on the Freedom of Expression bandwagon, and go to the meetings, write letters to the editor, to your Congressional representatives, telling them what the book banners are up to.

Here is a link to an American Library Association's website article about the banning of Harry Potter books:

http://www.ala.org/pio/presskits/midwinterawards2001/challenged.html

This isn't an issue simply about liking or disliking what fundamentalists attempt to do, or would like to see happen in their perfect world. It is about fundamentalist attacks on our constitutional rights to freedom of expression, through book banning.

To find out more about the Harry Potter book banning campaign (which is very well organized and very well funded I might add), just go to Google or any search engine and type in "Banned Books" and a lot of solid information will be just a click away.