Will Harry Potter lose his head?

Officers tell of daily attacks by al Qaeda inmates against U.S. military personnel, who are ordered not to respond. The officers have also been ordered to fulfill the religious, cultural and even entertainment needs of the inmates, including providing Arabic translations of Harry Potter.

Ahmed Shablool writing for Arab World Books explains this apparently strange confluence:

The Eastern Influence in Harry Potter

According to the Concise Arabic Encyclopedia, Alexandria was the home of the Philosopher’s Stone and the Elixir of Immortality that transform base metals into precious ones, namely gold, and brings back youth. This old art originated in Egypt, others say in China, in the third or fifth century BC. It is associated with astrology and magic. It was called old chemistry, or alchemy, and reached the Arabs in the eighth century to stay with them until the 12th century. It was then transferred to Europe through the translation of the works of famous Arab chemists like Khaled bin Yazid, Jaber bin Hayan, ThouNoon AL-Masri, Al-Tughraei, Zakariya Al-Razi, and others. Symbolism characterized this science-art throughout the Middle Ages, and it was shrouded in secrecy.

The rulers of Islam were fond of chemistry, up to the extent that some sacrificed their lives in the quest of more knowledge in this field.

This is how the Philosopher's Stone's existence came to life in Roling’s novel, emanating from the imaginations of the Arab scientists of old, especially those who practiced alchemy and who spoke about their art in terms shrouded in mystery, symbols and magic. Roling did an excellent job in using these ideas, fascinating children and adults alike with her broad imagination and her impressive knowledge of the Middle Ages and antiquity, especially Egyptian, Arabic and Islamic history, or the history of the East in general, although she never mentioned it in the first part of the series. In fact she did not need to. The melting of sources and references in the structure of the novel is an indication of the professionalism of the author.

We can also say that the author benefited greatly from the stories of Moses and his encounter with the Egyptian magicians who converted their wands into snakes and serpents as stated in the Holy Quran. It is difficult to judge whether Roling read the Holy Quran, however similar stories exist in the Old and New Testaments. But we may see that the usage and training to use the magic wands are a manifestation of Eastern influence through Eastern myths and the three major religions.

Dick Durbin must have had British auther J. K. Roling in mind:
Gitmo called death camp

The Senate's No. 2 Democrat has compared the U.S. military's treatment of a suspected al Qaeda terrorist at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay with the regimes of Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Pol Pot, three of history's most heinous dictators, whose regimes killed millions.

Mr. Durbin also likened the treatment of terror suspects at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision to authorize the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.