That's debatable. The point is that these books are correlated with a rise in interest in the occult, as the largest pagan organization in England attests.
In England, the Pagan Federation has been barraged with so many inquiries about Wicca, mostly from teenage girls, that the group has appointed a youth officer whose primary responsibility will be to respond to Harry Potter fans who want to know how to become witches.If you can't trust the Pagan Federation, who can you trust? 8-o“It is quite probably linked to things like Harry Potter, 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch' and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,'” Pagan Federation Media Officer Andy Norfolk told "This Is London," a British news Web site.
Wiccans and other pagans consider Harry Potter a good example for would-be witches ...
There have been many rumored "rise in interest in the occult" from time to time, supposedly triggered by everything from the old "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Dark Shadows" TV shows to heavy metal rock bands. It's mostly bunk, fueled by a certain amount of panic whipped up by those with an axe to grind. There are a few kids who are drawn to the Wiccan culture and stick with it, but they are few and their numbers don't seem to change very much over time (and frankly, better that than the Goths, who are often Satanists -- and the Wiccans are more afraid of Satanists than your average Christian, simply because they know more about them and what they do.)
As for how I know, I've known a Third Degree priestess in a Wiccan "grove" (not coven) for something like 25 years. (I think she is in grievous error, but she was an atheist before she was a Wiccan, so at least she's moving in the right direction.) Over the time she has been associated with her group (which is the largest in our area), the number of people interested in the Wiccan religion has remained fairly flat (and small). The group doesn't proselytize, and they don't allow minors to join unless their parents are already members. So I just don't see this as that imminent a threat.