The PM Sports Newscaster knows nothing about Muggle and magical Quidditch or Harry Potter for that matter, and, be forewarned, there is some rough language. But the images from this summer’s Quidditch World Cup matches make it worth your time to watch the video. Those of you who were there, please let us know if this captures or diminishes the feel of the actual event!

What fun! Let me know what you think… There is a decent near transcript posted at LeakyCauldron.

A Big Thank You again to Nick Jeffery for finding the url to this video (the old one had been taken down)!

We’ve covered the ‘Ayatollah Condemns Harry Potter” story before (way back in 2008), but, forgive me, this kind of thing is just so bizarre that it still leaves me shaking my head. It really isn’t anything like the cockeyed “Pope Condemns Harry Potter” story cooked up by some Star Chamber Catholics at the release of Order of the Phoenix. That is almost rational and reasonable compared to a new documentary on Iran’s Irinn teevee channel. This production asserts that ‘Harry Potter is a Zionist Plot to Promote Devil Worship.’

As Perelandra, who sent me the link observed, “Just when you thought that Harry-hatred couldn’t get any worse…. It’s fascinating that [the Muslim film makers] make the same “mockingbird fallacy” as some Christian critics–condemning the work for the villain’s views.” I’d only add the obvious: Harry’s Christian critics, for all their failings in charity and in grasping the 9th Commandment, never in my experience have written or said anything as off-the-wall as this anti-Semitic vitriol. The Onion satire was more credible and less offensive than this.

The Rev. Danielle Tumminio, author of God and Harry Potter at Yale, was interviewed by CNN Religion blog reporter Eric Marrapodi for an article published today with the provocative title ‘Was Harry Potter a Good Christian?‘ The article contrasts the Rev. Tumminio’s perspective with Lauvre Steenhaussen at Georgetown who argues that Harry’s leading a moral life and “seeking” does not make him a Christian. Most interesting to me has been the volume and intensity of the response: almost a hundred comments before noon on a holiday recovery Tuesday. Folks are still wound up about Harry’s religious content — especially when reading articles headed by a picture of Daniel Radcliffe with a nimbus (halo) like the 2009 piece at your left.

See the HogPro interview with Rev. Tumminio here for for more on her class at Yale, how it came about, and what her students learned from and taught her about Harry and Christian faith. H/T to Eric in Houston!