Be Careful What You Ask For, You Might Just Get It.

Moushumi Khan, a proud Graduate of Mount Holyoke College.

My law school application essay was entitled, “Bridge over Troubled Waters.” Fourteen years ago I wrote that the three things closest to my heart were Islam, Bangladesh and the necessity for individual critical thought. I defined myself as a bridge, as someone who tries her best to transcend barriers, to reach out to opposing camps. I ended by saying that I wanted to develop the skills of a mediator as well as a litigator, to bridge conflict as well as to engage in it. During interviews I went on about how I wanted to ‘serve my community,’ without really understanding what this meant.

As I come to end of my legal career and prepare to study public policy, and I reflect on these goals, I find that I am still passionate about Islam, Bangladesh and critical thought. Over the last six years in my private practice I have learned what it means to ‘serve my community’ in a post 9/11 America. I have started a consulting company, “Jisir (‘bridge’ in Arabic) Consulting” which seeks to help companies and organizations bridge relations with the Muslim community. I have been humbled by seeing my Muslim, Bangladeshi and other immigrant clients try to realize their American Dream. I have become frustrated at the state of international and interfaith relations. I have gone into debt paying tuition at the school of hard knocks trying to establish my legal practice. I am grateful to all those who took the time to mentor and provoke me into becoming a better lawyer and activist.

The biggest lesson that I have learned is that if you sincerely want something, you will get it. Perhaps it won’t be in the form that you expected or take longer than you hoped, but it will come. So be careful what you ask for. When I asked for the opportunity to serve my community, I did not think that would entail my learning how to do residential closings in Queens because my Bangladeshi cab driver clients were buying real estate, nor appealing deportation cases resulting from Special Registration since I had no interest or experience in real estate or immigration law; I could not have imagined that so-called Muslims would attack my country seven months after I started my solo legal practice and change the nature of my advocacy forever. I did not anticipate that I would become a spokesperson for those things that I held closest to my heart and speak out against my fellow Americans’ lack of critical thinking about the War on Terror. I have become a lawyer who is wary of the ways in which laws, such as the Patriot Act, are used for political ends. I am a lawyer who still believes that our legal system works and can protect all of our civil liberties. In the end, I have become a person who believes that no law can save us from the ravages of bigotry, that building community is the ultimate defense to terrorism. As the water underneath me gets more troubled, I continue to believe in the power of bridges in mediating conflict.