Magic versus religion is the scenario in the Durand Primary School - Stockwell, South London. Sariya Allan, a now former teaching assistant at this school, refused to listen when one of her pupils read from a Harry Potter book. Sariya Allan told a seven year old girl pupil from her class that she would be 'cursed' if she heard any portion of this novel by J. K. Rowling. "I don't do witchcraft in any form" - she declared. Following this incident, her employers took a step towards correcting her. Sariya Allan quit her job on the grounds of religious discrimination, and has presently is suing the school for damages.

As her evidence, Sariya mentioned that a girl in her class brought a Harry Potter book to read where she told the child that she does not do 'witchcraft' in any form. She further explained that the reason for her disapproval of the book was the fact that Harry Potter books were written on 'white magic", which her religion advocates strongly against the practices which the book contains. Thus she had objected to the child reading the book to her and in her classroom. Sariya said, - "I was put in the position that listening to the child reading this book would compromise my religious beliefs".

According to the school's legal counsel, Mr. Oduje, the school had criticized her behavior towards the student, which he felt was biased against the student from the former teacher Sariya. the school had objected to Sariya's bias against the student in reading her choice of book by imposing her own religious beliefs on the child. He felt that Sariya's behavior was not appropriate for a teacher under any circumstances.

Most children, parents, educators and grown-up Harry Potter fans think that it's absurd to censor a book with typical fairy tale magical elements that are present in most children's books and has encouraged reading into popularity. If parents don't want a child to read certain books, they have the authority as guardian of that child to prevent him or her from reading material they find offensive or counter their religious beliefs.

However, banning books is not the solution to dissolving the evils of the world. We may not agree with what an author writes and it may even infuriates people. But nevertheless it creates an environment of thought provoking debate, self assessment and it encourages reading. We live in an era where children would rather play video games and chat online in broken English than read a book.

Over the years, many books have been banned only to resurface showing them to be the precious gems of literature that they deserved to be.

Catcher in the Rye (1951)

Fahrenheit 451

Families by Meredith Tax

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

The Diary of Anne Frank

Goosebumps (series) by R.L Stine

What's Happening to My Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras

All of these books have been banned in schools and libraries. Some are based on silly but ligament reasons such as maybe the book series is a little to scary. But others were banned simply out of ignorance and in the name of protecting the false illusion of evil. Instead of Harry Potter, the conservative group Families for Friendly Libraries recommends the following books for younger children:

Winnie the Pooh: A boy and his talking teddy bear that comes to life with other talking animals. No magic there!

The Jungle Book: A boy that grows up in the wild and talks to animals? Sounds like witchcraft to me!

Tales of Hans Christian Andersen: Biographies usually portray him as either homosexual or bisexual and yet they want to ban Heather Has Two Mommies. I guess it's only gay if your female or not caught as a male.

Banning books says a lot about how religious beliefs can become prejudices. Religion in today's world is something very personal. Is it right to express an objection or make a statement in a classroom which is wholly based on one's own religious beliefs? It also presents the following question - Can a teacher stop her student from doing something just because she does not like it herself? The question of freedom of choice and of individual expression becomes much more visible when we look at incidents like the one in Stockwell, South London.

The best banned books to read