A Michigan man has been fired after posting a racist remark on Facebook about Halima Aden – a Muslim model featured in the current issue of Sports Illustrated wearing a hijab and burkini.
Bill Larion, 58, who worked as a part-time surveyor for the city of Dearborn’s Engineering Department, had his position terminated on Wednesday, four days after he wrote that Aden should have instead been featured in ‘Camels Are Us’.
The comment attracted widespread condemnation, including outrage from the mayor of Dearborn, which is 46 per cent Arab American.
Larion initially denied he wrote the comment, and claimed that his Facebook account had been hacked.
However, by Tuesday, he confessed to writing the post and offered a formal apology.
‘I want to apologize for my horrible comment… I want to do better for my community and family. I hurt not only my family but my coworkers and my community and people I don’t even know,’ he stated.
Trump Announces Christmas Day Strikes on Islamic Terrorists Involved in Nigerian Christian Genocide
Nebraska grandfather killed in ‘freak accident’ at McDonald’s drive-thru
Ultra High Level Democrat Influencer Calls for Violence Against ‘Dead Man Walking’ Trump on Christmas Eve – Calls on People to ‘Put Him to Sleep’
Santa with CCW gets pulled over, tells Ohio deputy ‘you got to protect yourself’ during festive traffic stop
Nonprofit uses underwater technology to search for missing service members
Fox News ‘Antisemitism Exposed’ Newsletter: UN bigot out at Georgetown
Kim Jong Un swipes at South Korea’s progress building a nuclear submarine while inspecting his own
Poll: Young Protestants Are Officially Outnumbered by the ‘Nones’
Florida man kills wife, shoots stepdaughter over NFL game argument before taking own life
Wild Christmas Miracle: Watch a Bona Fide Miracle in Real Time as Skydiver Gets Caught on Plane, Plummets, then Manages to Cheat Death
Biden nearly invisible in own Christmas family photo as Hunter takes center stage
5 Things the GOP Needs to Change to Win the 2026 Midterms
Lawmakers attempt to tackle NIL, giving it the ‘old college try’
LA Garbage Crisis Is So Bad One Man Quit His Job to Pick Up the City’s Slack
And We Thought Fruitcake Was Bad: Italian Company Is 3D Printing ‘Pastries’ That Are Made of Truly Gross-Sounding Ingredients
The apology was too little, too late for Larion, who was axed from his position the following day.
Larion’s lawyer, Ed Zelenak, said that the community missed a teaching moment by firing the city worker so abruptly.
Zelenak claimed his client was open to becoming involved with interfaith groups, which ‘would have been a great opportunity for the city of Dearborn to put both feet forward and say: ‘We’re going to learn from this.”’
The comments have not distracted from Aden’s history-making Sports Illustrated photo shoot.
The Somali-American model became the first woman to wear a hijab and a burkini in the magazine’s famed Swimsuit Edition, which went on sale on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old, who was born in a refugee camp in Kenya, stuns in several custom-made burkinis inside the pages of the magazine.
Halima lived at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya before moving to the United States at the age of seven, and recently reflected on her amazing journey during her shoot.
‘I keep thinking [back] to six-year-old me who, in this same country, was in a refugee camp,’ she told Sports Illustrated.
‘So to grow up to live the American dream [and] to come back to Kenya and shoot for SI in the most beautiful parts of Kenya — I don’t think that’s a story that anybody could make up.’
Trump Announces Christmas Day Strikes on Islamic Terrorists Involved in Nigerian Christian Genocide
Nebraska grandfather killed in ‘freak accident’ at McDonald’s drive-thru
Ultra High Level Democrat Influencer Calls for Violence Against ‘Dead Man Walking’ Trump on Christmas Eve – Calls on People to ‘Put Him to Sleep’
Santa with CCW gets pulled over, tells Ohio deputy ‘you got to protect yourself’ during festive traffic stop
Nonprofit uses underwater technology to search for missing service members
Fox News ‘Antisemitism Exposed’ Newsletter: UN bigot out at Georgetown
Kim Jong Un swipes at South Korea’s progress building a nuclear submarine while inspecting his own
Poll: Young Protestants Are Officially Outnumbered by the ‘Nones’
Florida man kills wife, shoots stepdaughter over NFL game argument before taking own life
Wild Christmas Miracle: Watch a Bona Fide Miracle in Real Time as Skydiver Gets Caught on Plane, Plummets, then Manages to Cheat Death
Biden nearly invisible in own Christmas family photo as Hunter takes center stage
5 Things the GOP Needs to Change to Win the 2026 Midterms
Lawmakers attempt to tackle NIL, giving it the ‘old college try’
LA Garbage Crisis Is So Bad One Man Quit His Job to Pick Up the City’s Slack
And We Thought Fruitcake Was Bad: Italian Company Is 3D Printing ‘Pastries’ That Are Made of Truly Gross-Sounding Ingredients
‘I keep thinking [back] to six-year-old me who, in this same country, was in a refugee camp,’ she told Sports Illustrated.
‘So to grow up to live the American dream [and] to come back to Kenya and shoot for SI in the most beautiful parts of Kenya — I don’t think that’s a story that anybody could make up.’
Story cited here.
