There is no excuse for copyright infringement. If Hauser really infringed upon Furie’s copyright, he should pay Furie. But instead, he is being made to pay the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. CAIR officials have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements about how Islamic law should be imposed in the U.S. (Ahmad denies this, but the original reporter stands by her story.) A California chapter distributed a poster telling Muslims not to talk to the FBI, and a Florida chapter distributed pamphlets with the same message. CAIR has opposed virtually every anti-terror measure that has been proposed or implemented and has been declared a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates. A CAIR operative recently called for the overthrow of the U.S. government.
Why is he being forced to pay Hamas-linked CAIR? Because the book apparently features a bearded alligator villian named Alkah, which the 11-year-old daughter of an imam immediately associated with Allah — or so the imam tells us. Oh, the Islamophobia! You’d think Fouad (the imam) would be embarrassed to make claims such as this, after the jihad attacks in Manchester, London, Paris, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Finland, and on and on. You’d think he would be too busy trying to ensure that “extremism” was not spreading in his community to be concerned about a children’s book. You’d think wrong.
“Controversial children’s author turns over book profits to pro-Islam group; resigns school post,” by Caitlyn Jones, Denton Record-Chronicle, August 28, 2017 (thanks to Lookmann):
Eric Hauser, a former Denton ISD administrator who resigned last week, has admitted to copyright infringement for his use of a Pepe the Frog character in his book, The Adventures of Pepe and Pede.
Matt Furie, the artist who created Pepe the Frog in the early 2000s for a web comic series, threatened to sue Hauser unless he shut down distribution of the book, according to a press release from Furie’s attorneys at WilmerHale law firm.
Upon its release on Aug. 1, the book was perceived by many to be anti-Muslim and included many phrases used on white supremacist social media websites. The Pepe cartoon itself gained prominence during the presidential election as a symbol of a racist movement described as the “alt-right.”
To avoid a lawsuit, Hauser agreed to stop distribution of his book, which was previously picked up by Post Hill Press. He also is required to donate all profits from sales to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.
“As this action shows, Furie will aggressively enforce his intellectual property, using legal action if necessary, to end the misappropriation of Pepe the Frog in any way that espouses racism, white supremacy, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Nazism, or any other form of hate,” the press release said.
Hauser didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday, but previously said he didn’t know Pepe was tied to white supremacists and does not align himself with the alt-right movement. He told The Dallas Morning News he wrote the book to fill a conservative void in children’s literature with themes focused on honesty, teamwork and patriotism….
Hauser previously was picked to be an assistant principal at the newly opened Rodriguez Middle School in Oak Point, but was removed from his post before the school year started. District spokesman Mario Zavala said Hauser originally asked for reassignment within Denton ISD, but resigned from the district last week.
Mohammed Fouad, the imam at the Denton Islamic Center, agreed that the book is Islamophobic and said it isn’t welcome in his mosque. He asked his 11-year-old daughter what she thought of the book when she read it. The girl immediately associated the bearded alligator villian, Alkah, with the Muslim God known as Allah, he said.
“If a child reads this, what will they think?” Fouad said. “To take these ideals into a classroom is wrong. Hatred shouldn’t be taught.”