Islamists Greet Harry Potter

In Karachi, Pakistan, radical Islamists "celebrated" the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in their own inimitable fashion. Reuters has the details:

Pakistani police defused a car bomb outside a shopping mall in Karachi overnight, forcing a bookshop to cancel a live telecast from London of the launch of the latest Harry Potter book, police said on Saturday.

Pakistan is in the grip of a terror scare, after Islamist militants launched an offensive, often using suicide attacks, that has so far killed 180 people this month.

The bookshop in Karachi's up-market Park Towers mall had hoped to attract young and old fans of the fictional boy wizard for the launch at 4 a.m. on Saturday (2300 GMT Friday).

Instead, police cordoned off the mall after receiving an anonymous tip-off by telephone.

Two boxes containing between 10 and 12 kg of RDX explosive were found inside a stolen Suzuki car.

"We defused both bombs. These were highly explosive RDX," Mohammad Iqbal, head of bomb disposal squad, said.


To be fair, there are some Islamists who do appreciate Harry Potter.