diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index f08163d0..617d6a17 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ NEWS ( CHANGELOG and HISTORY )                                     HTMLPurifier
 ==========================
 
 4.1.2, unknown release date
+! Added %Core.RemoveProcessingInstructions, which lets you remove
+  <? ... ?> statements.
 - Fix improper handling of Internet Explorer conditional comments
   by parser.  Thanks zmonteca for reporting.
 
diff --git a/configdoc/usage.xml b/configdoc/usage.xml
index ec5b4166..444c3ad5 100644
--- a/configdoc/usage.xml
+++ b/configdoc/usage.xml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
   </file>
   <file name="HTMLPurifier/Lexer.php">
    <line>81</line>
-   <line>269</line>
+   <line>282</line>
   </file>
   <file name="HTMLPurifier/Lexer/DirectLex.php">
    <line>53</line>
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@
    <line>202</line>
   </file>
   <file name="HTMLPurifier/Lexer.php">
-   <line>258</line>
+   <line>269</line>
   </file>
   <file name="HTMLPurifier/HTMLModule/Image.php">
    <line>27</line>
@@ -211,7 +211,12 @@
  </directive>
  <directive id="Core.ConvertDocumentToFragment">
   <file name="HTMLPurifier/Lexer.php">
-   <line>267</line>
+   <line>280</line>
+  </file>
+ </directive>
+ <directive id="Core.RemoveProcessingInstructions">
+  <file name="HTMLPurifier/Lexer.php">
+   <line>301</line>
   </file>
  </directive>
  <directive id="URI.">
diff --git a/library/HTMLPurifier/ConfigSchema/schema.ser b/library/HTMLPurifier/ConfigSchema/schema.ser
index 22b8d54a..ac93a0c4 100644
Binary files a/library/HTMLPurifier/ConfigSchema/schema.ser and b/library/HTMLPurifier/ConfigSchema/schema.ser differ
diff --git a/library/HTMLPurifier/ConfigSchema/schema/Core.RemoveProcessingInstructions.txt b/library/HTMLPurifier/ConfigSchema/schema/Core.RemoveProcessingInstructions.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0a6d4ec1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/library/HTMLPurifier/ConfigSchema/schema/Core.RemoveProcessingInstructions.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+Core.RemoveProcessingInstructions
+TYPE: bool
+VERSION: 4.1.2
+DEFAULT: false
+--DESCRIPTION--
+Instead of escaping processing instructions in the form <code>&lt;? ...
+?&gt;</code>, remove it out-right.  This may be useful if the HTML
+you are validating contains XML processing instruction gunk, however,
+it can also be user-unfriendly for people attempting to post PHP
+snippets.
+--# vim: et sw=4 sts=4
diff --git a/library/HTMLPurifier/Lexer.php b/library/HTMLPurifier/Lexer.php
index e3522009..f853421a 100644
--- a/library/HTMLPurifier/Lexer.php
+++ b/library/HTMLPurifier/Lexer.php
@@ -297,6 +297,11 @@ class HTMLPurifier_Lexer
         // represent non-SGML characters (horror, horror!)
         $html = HTMLPurifier_Encoder::cleanUTF8($html);
 
+        // if processing instructions are to removed, remove them now
+        if ($config->get('Core.RemoveProcessingInstructions')) {
+            $html = preg_replace('#<\?.+?\?>#s', '', $html);
+        }
+
         return $html;
     }
 
diff --git a/tests/HTMLPurifier/LexerTest.php b/tests/HTMLPurifier/LexerTest.php
index e6b0e0fb..0cb95155 100644
--- a/tests/HTMLPurifier/LexerTest.php
+++ b/tests/HTMLPurifier/LexerTest.php
@@ -717,6 +717,14 @@ div {}
         );
     }
 
+    function test_tokenizeHTML_removeProcessingInstruction() {
+        $this->config->set('Core.RemoveProcessingInstructions', true);
+        $this->assertTokenization(
+            '<?xml blah blah ?>',
+            array()
+        );
+    }
+
     /*
 
     function test_tokenizeHTML_() {