To whom it may concern,

Law students and lawyers have a stereotype of being super competitive, cut-throat type A personalities. I’m not really like that. I am an incredibly personable person who loves to talk about everything from sports to politics. While I enjoy the casual conversation, I know when to turn on the serious mode and do work. Reading through the job description, I think I would be a perfect fit for [firm omitted].

I don’t consider myself to be super formal; quite the contrary, I think often times people take themselves too seriously and need to relax a bit to enjoy life and their profession. Practicing law is a passion of mine, and while that may sound kind of cliché, it’s true. From when I was a child watching The Practice on TV, I knew I wanted to be an attorney; not for the money, but for the rush of doing substantive work.

Along with my passion for the law, I’m very involved in my local community and helping young folks be good people. I’m the social media team lead for Young Muslims, the largest locally focused Muslim youth organization in the United States. There are so many negative stereotypes out there about young Muslim males, and I want to be the example that destroys those stereotypes. I am just as American as apple pie (though I prefer my pies to be in pizza form) and hamburgers. I’m a die-hard Mets and Giants fan, and could play poker forever without getting tired.

If there’s one thing I would be if I wasn’t a lawyer, it would have to be a chef. I love cooking (and eating too), and it’s a great way to take your mind off a stressful day of law school. If there was one place I went for dinner in NYC it would have to be the gyro cart on 53rd and 6th. The cart represents one of the true essences of living in New York City – great food, cheap prices and a quality product. The cart on 53rd and 6th, or the “Gyro Guy,” is so embedded in the city that no matter what time you go, day or night, there is always a line for the food. Beyond the food, the memories of standing on line for food in the city, during rain, snow, summer heat, shows the commitment that people have for the food, and the overall experience of the place. Even beyond the commitment, the gyro cart has become a melting pot of sorts in New York. People from every walk of life, the executive who works in the buildings around it, to the cabby who is worried about getting a ticket stands in line; everyone, Black, White, Chinese, Pakistani, rich, poor, each equal for food.

I’m available immediately for an interview, and available May 15th to start.

I would be great with client intake or research. I’m a very personable person who has a very business oriented mind so I would be able to help clients with things they may not have thought of. I’m also great at logistics; the UPS commercial about the person who loves logistics – that’s me. I can manage a bunch of different things at the same time, as well as balance very complicated ideas in my mind at one.

I look forward to speaking to you about the possibility of working as a summer position at [firm omitted].

As a community we need to stop being passive, and need to actively respond back. To a certain degree each of us can educate ourselves in law, religion and history to speak with sophistication against the hate in a manner that would be beneficial. It is important that we speak beyond the cliches of “Islam means peace” and “Islam respects women.” Since the accusation are regarding Muslims’ respect and loyalty to the U.S. constitution, we need to find on point examples from our tradition that speak directly to this matter.

via Soul Still Solstice.

via Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice – Yahoo! News.

via tender indifference: painting snowboards DIY.

Go ahead,
Be what you want to be

Be the crazy one who stalks everyone on Facebook
Or the creepy one who knows where everyone is at all times
Be the loud one who talks over everyone else
Or the stubborn one who always wants his way
But be yourself and not who everyone else wants you to be

Be the quiet one who sits back and observes
Or the smart one with all the answers
Be the wise one that everyone goes to for advice
Or the friend everyone wants
But be yourself and not who everyone else wants you to be

Be the doctor that parents want for their daughters
Or the lawyer that seek to represent them
Be the leader the community always wanted
Or the child your parents always dreamed of
But be yourself and not who everyone else wants you to be

God said “Be”
and it was
So why are you
Having such a hard time
Being you?

Untitled
By Hina Jaffer

This is not a poem meant for the purposes of rhyme
I am just a poet writing of the injustices of our time
I am the starved of Somalia
The poor of India
I am the wounded of Syria
Oh Lord, Just free Gaza
Assad’s regime
Much too similar to the conditions of Falastene
You say Israel
With my fists in the air I scream Palestine
CNN and BBC
All tuned in just to see
What the verdict is in the trial of Conrad Murray
Or how NASA plans their next trip to Mars
But what goes unnoticed, is bloody Bashar
Stabbing his sword into innocent souls
This play of his, is getting much too old
We see mankind scatter
Heritages and cultures cluster
But this isn’t about whose flag is raised higher
This is about the innocent lives being robbed from families abroad
Throwing families without their fathers, husbands, or sons out on the road
No, we must come together as mankind
And do what is right
No innocent should be killed
No child should sleep hungry
So the starved girl in Pakistan
The orphan in Kurdistan
The oppressed woman in Gaza
And the widow in Syria
Join hands and chant as one
Free Free Pakistan
Free Free Kurdistan
Free Free Palestine
Free Free Syria
Free Free our beautiful world

· “There are more blacks under correctional control today — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.”

· “As of 2004, more African American men were disenfranchised (due to felon disenfranchisement laws) than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race.”

· In 2005, 4 out of 5 drug arrests were for possession not trafficking, and 80% of the increase in drug arrests in the 1990s was for marijuana.

· There are 50,000 arrests for low-level pot possession a year in New York City, representing one out of every seven cases that turn up in criminal courts. Most of these arrested are black and hispanic men.

via Occupy The Dream: The Mathematics of Racism | Dylan Ratigan.

via Jihadi Jew: Hijabi for a Day.