Conservative Australian school bans Harry

Author JK Rowling's Harry Potter boy wizard blockbusters have been banned by a conservative Christian school in Melbourne because they "promote" witchcraft.

The five books in the Harry Potter series will not adorn the library shelves of the Maranatha Christian College in Doveton and Endeavour Hills because of the school's policy on fantasy.

Principal Bert Langerak, who said he has read the latest children's bestseller, said the school's policy on fantasy recognised books that portray evil as good.

"The Potter books portray and promote witchcraft as normal," he told Melbourne radio station 3AW. "It's a problem because as Christians we would say witchcraft and that kind of thing is not good, and yet Rowling portrays it as being good."