Thursday, June 30, 2011

Aku ( sang gadis kasmaran) & Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi





Akulah gadis yang sedang kasmaran. Rasaku peka dan imajinasiku bagai musim-musim yang berubah demikian cepat. Marah menjadi manis, sedih terasa sedap dan hampa seperti labirin yang menantangku untuk mencari cahaya, menuntunku untuk sampai di ujungnya.

Akulah gadis yang sedang kasmaran. Dan seperti Rumi yang merindukan Syams at Tabriz , aku pun merindukan kekasihku, mencari segala cara untuk sampai padanya.

Seperti Rumi, akulah petualang tersesat yang kemudian mati-matian membaca peta dengan cermat. Berusaha berjalan terus sampai ke tepi bintang, merangkak di dinding-dinding pengetahuan yang tanpa dasar. Aku tersesat di pusar naga, lalu terlambung di buritan kapal kerinduan yang membuatku nanar. Tak ada kota Konya. Tak ada teman terbungkus jubah wol.

Dalam kesendirian, aku menolak teman dan hiburan. Dalam kesendirian, aku seperti penari darwis yang berputar dan mengetahui bahwa angin yang datang mengelilingiku dalam tarian adalah jelmaan kekasih yang kurindukan. Dan kepada angin yang anggun menatap, inilah gemetar rindu yang kubisikan:

Kekasihku… denganmu kutahu kita bisa menari melintasi wajah ketakterbatasan.
Kekasihku.. tak ada waktu yang tersia saat kita berdua bersama.
Kekasihku.. bahkan seribu tahun, ku kan setia menunggu…
Karena kekasihku… sampah jiwaku telah terburai saat aku menemukanmu.
Karena kekasihku, kutemukan cahaya di bibir dan desah nafasmu…
Karena kekasihku… kisaran pasir telah memurnakanku…
Memunahkan hasratku akan nafsu memilikimu…
Ma’arif itu kekasihku…
Ia telah datang padaku melaluimu.


Seperti Rumi yang menikah dengan kebenaran
Tadi malam, kau menjelma kebijakan
Menpersuntingku dalam diam

____________

*
tapi terkadang ku bertanya, wahai kekasihku tersayang,
kaukah impian tentang anggur di malam musim dingin yang kulihat di mata para pemabuk?
Ataukah kau hanya mimpi tak nyata?
Yang menghilang di pelupuk saat kumembuka mata?

Mirasi Sufisme



Islam has a bad reputation these days. Aside from its associations with political militancy, there have been incidents which challenge Canadian conceptions of tolerance, including the recent high-profile account of an Iranian woman sentenced to stoning for adultery.

Such incidents must be viewed in the proper perspective. Most Canadians would not like to see Christianity judged as a whole simply by the Crusades, or by the separation of children of the First Nations from their families, and their subsequent abuse. If this is so, it is incumbent upon all of us to seek out a larger, more complicated view of Islam. Indeed, the recent debates over the placement of a mosque at ground zero, and the threatened burning of the Quran, have shown how terribly close-minded North Americans can be.

What sensationalist accounts about violence and cultural incommensurability don’t tell us about is how and why Islam is such a powerful positive force in the world, and why so many in our world celebrate it. Such representations threaten to erase the complexity and beauty of Islam from our view, and allow singular acts--and some enduring problems—to speak for the tradition as a whole.

There are many other Islams to learn about. One is accompanied by song. Sufism is the mystical tradition in Islam, and it has played a powerful role in Islam’s history. Music is central to the Sufi approach to the divine as intimate, personal, and ecstatic. It is a celebration of the life of the divine within our world. This is the Islam that scholars have decisively shown was responsible for large numbers of conversions in South Asia over the last millennium. This is the Islam that lives at Sufi shrines all through South Asia—even in areas with small Muslim populations. Even in the Indian Punjab today, which lost most of its Muslim population at partition in 1947, such religious and musical traditions thrive.

Song and performance bring Islam to life throughout South Asia. I will never forget when I visited a tiny shrine in Panipat in Haryana, India, tucked away in a busy bazaar. Inside was a small group of musicians, singing of the grace and glory of God, and the loving compassion of the saint. If only I could bring such an experience to people in North America, I thought, those years ago, to help them understand the beauty and intimacy of such a performance.

This Islam is coming to Vancouver this weekend. Singer Mukthiar Ali—who performs on Saturday and Sunday at the Frederic Wood Theatre at UBC—represents the 26th generation in a family of Mirasi or traditionally nomadic singers of Rajasthan. He sings a wide range of devotional music, including that of the Hindu saints Mira and Brahmanand, the lower caste critique of social and religious conventions, Kabir, and a range of Sufi (Islamic mystical) poets such as Bulle Shah, Baba Sheikh Farid, and Amir Khusro. Ali comes to us as a part of the Virani Lecture Series in Islamic Studies, an annual event made possible by the generous support of Amir and Yasmin Virani. Their vision makes this celebration of culture and knowledge possible.

The visit of Mukhtiar Ali to UBC offers an opportunity to experience this mystical dimension of Islam, sung and experienced by a group of folk singers who have only begun to be heard outside of India. It also demonstrates vividly how the performance of Islam in South Asia has occurred in dynamic conversation with non-Islamic traditions: Ali sings Mira, as well as Baba Sheikh Farid. The divine, through such poets, is accessible to all.

These performances are accompanied by a mini-film festival featuring the films of Ajay Bhardwaj, a Delhi-based documentary filmmaker, with films related to the theme of Islam in Punjab (and others as well), and talks by UBC professor Ken Bryant and University of Alberta professor Regula Qureshi, who is a specialist on Islamic musical performance in South Asia.

If we want to understand our world, we must understand its complexity. Islam is not the one-dimensional ideology all too often portrayed in the media. We invite Vancouver to experience a larger, more representative Islam. Sometimes—as I learned in Panipat—it is necessary to see for yourself.

Anne Murphy is Assistant Professor and Chair, Punjabi Language, Literature and Sikh Studies in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia.

Sufism in America

By ANJUM NAIM
http://span.state.gov/wwwhspmayjune8.html
Immigrant teachers, travel books and translated poetry spread Sufi thought and ritual.

The whirl stops and the white skirts of the dervishes, which had flared like parasols, settle in their normal pattern. The mesmerizing dance, driven by boundless spiritual energy, has ended with the fourth salaam, or invocation to peace. The audience heaves a sigh, as the spell is broken for a moment.Then begins a soulful chant: "Unto God belong the East and West, and wheresoever ye turn, ye are faced with Him. He is All-embracing, All-knowing."

This Sufi ceremony, or encounter with the divine, did not occur in Turkey or Afghanistan, but in Houston, Texas. A friend and I were the only two non-white, non-American folk in the audience. Together, all of us were on a journey to a special place in the soul.

The dance and the ritual is known as Sema, an old Sufi practice associated with the 13th-century Persian poet Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, who was born in Balkh, Afghanistan. Each detail of dress and every gesture is loaded with significance. The tall cap on the dancer's head symbolizes a tomb under which the ego is buried.

Sema is the pilgrim's progress toward perfection and the realization of the ultimate truth. It is considered an ascent to the higher self through absolute, unconditional love. Returning from this inward travel, an individual feels he has become the beloved of the entire creation, acceptable to and adored by all. The Sufi who attains such perfection believes he has risen above denominational squabbles, racial ill will, lust for worldly gain and parochial pettiness.

After the dance ended, I was curious as to how the United States had become the home for such a spiritual quest. I had grown up in India with the image of an America peopled by Christians and Jews only, although people of other faiths, from Native Americans to Chinese workers and other immigrants, had lived there for centuries. The picture started to change further in the early 20th century as more faiths from the East, including Islam, began to influence daily life and attitudes in the United States.

The first Muslim immigrants, from 1878 to 1924, were laborers from Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Those who stayed concentrated in enclaves in the states of Iowa, North Dakota, Indiana and in the cities of Detroit and Pittsburgh. The Asian Exclusion Act of 1924 halted the immigration of Muslims until the immigration reforms of 1952 and 1965. In the 1960s many Asian immigrants reached the United States in pursuit of the "Great American Dream." There was a spiritual flowering as many gurus, Sufis and missionaries came in.

The new assumptions, attitudes and beliefs they brought generated debate. Sufism began to attract serious attention and found a niche in American society, although it actually had begun to make its presence felt from the early 1900s as an undercurrent in American aesthetics and spiritual life. Bohemians of Los Angeles such as John Cowper Powys had acquired reputations as connoisseurs of Sufism. Also, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff and Hazrat Inayat Khan from India presented Sufism in an idiom that modern American society could grasp easily. By the end of the 1960s, San Francisco was home to a large number of Sufis, representing different spiritual orders.

Idris Shah's stories, reflecting the Sufi way of life, became popular on college campuses. American writers such as J.D. Salinger and Doris Lessing embraced it. Author Frank Herbert turned to Sufi spiritual melodies in his writings and movie star James Coburn, a member of a Sufi order, brought the culture to Hollywood.

The poems of Rumi, who lived from 1207-1273, had been known in academic circles through one English translation. But they became enormously popular after Tennessee-born poet Coleman Barks started translating them into modern English free verse. As Rumi's thought was being disseminated, his circles of devotees and the tradition of "turning" (or whirling dancing) also brought a new cultural perspective to the American "melting pot," although most Sufis in America are from the white majority.

Suleyman Scott Hofmann of Seattle in Washington State is vice president of the Mevlevi Order of America and a semazen or turner, who says, "What is attractive to me about Sufism is that at its core is love. It is taught face-to-face, hand to hand, heart to heart. Because of the language barrier, the Mevlevi teachings have initially come to America in a very pure form," he says, "expressed by example, gesture….Ultimately, it is not an intellectual exercise, though every personal resource is used."

In the 1970s, Hofmann first saw "someone stand up in the dervish garb and turn in the center of a circle of people. Something inside said, 'I don't know what that is, but I recognize it in myself.' I just had to know what was behind it." Suleyman Hayati Dede, leader of the Mevlevi Order in Konka, Turkey, came to Canada in 1976, and sent his son, Jelaluddin Loras on a one-way ticket a couple of years later, to begin teaching the ceremony and the Sufi way. But Hofmann was in a different part of the country trying, with like-minded searchers, to learn to turn by studying pictures of whirling dervishes from a book.
"Of course, we didn't accomplish it," Hofmann says, "but we were yearning to join in this beautiful ceremony that we were reading about." Eventually he met Loras and learned "there was a method, a step one, and step two and step three."

In America, "there was absolutely nothing that stopped me from searching, discovering anything I could about this," says Hofmann, "except the limitations of not knowing the language, not knowing the customs, not being able to read the literature in its original form, and not having living teachers available to study with. Those are a lot of 'nots.' " But no matter where one is, even in countries where the practice of Sufism is banned or restricted, Hofmann says, "there is no restriction to opening oneself to the essence of this teaching…because it's an inward journey."

The largest share of credit for popularizing Sufism in the West goes to Hazrat Inayat Khan, who brought musical, universalist Sufism from India to the United States in 1910. Although he began as a master of the Chishti Order, in America he trained people in the Naqshbandi, Qadiri and Suharwardi orders as well. He told his disciples to follow the order that suited them, because all led to the same truth. After his death in India in 1927, the movement he led became Sufi Order International, headquartered in New York.

Among Khan's principal disciples was Samuel L. Lewis, who had been born into a Jewish family and became known as Sufi Ahmad Murad Chishti after Khan certified him in 1926 as a Sufi master, credited with the ability to initiate newcomers into Sufi discipline and train them to perfection. Lewis established a convent in San Francisco, where people from different religious denominations gathered. He died in 1971 at 75.

Another prominent disciple of Inayat Khan's teachings is Shabda Kahn, director of the Chishti Sabri School of Music in California, which aims to spread the Sufi message of love through concerts. "Sufism is not about theories or the intellect so much as an experiential, body-based spirituality with many practices, using movement, the voice and music," says Kahn, a frequent traveler to India. In 2001, Kahn became the leader of Sufi Ruhianat International, which Lewis had started in San Francisco.
Sufism has attracted women in America in substantial numbers. One of the significant characteristics of the Mevlevi Order is its particular emphasis on introducing Sufism to the West with newer dimensions, including allowing women to participate in the mystic assemblies, says Maile Rietow, secretary of the order and wife of Loras, the leader or postneshin. "The Sema that we do in America is exactly the same as it is done in Turkey with the exception that we allow men and women to turn together," Rietow says. "This was also the case historically in Turkey, but not for several hundred years have men and women turned together publicly there. The original permission for women to turn in America was given by Postneshin Jelaluddin's father, Suleyman Hayati Dede."

Speaking from her home on the Hawaiian island of Maui, Rietow says she feels that Sufism "brings the sweet voices of the mysticism of Islam to the Western mind and heart, filling the emptiness there with love and gratitude." She adds, "As with all true paths, it offers a way out of the pain and confusion of separation brought on by materialism."

The dialogue between faiths that Sufism has initiated in multicultural America is the need of the hour, says Jay Kinney, editor of Gnosis, a journal of the Western inner traditions. Says Kinney, "If Sufism embodies the true essence of Islam, as many contend, then grasping what is attractive about Sufism may help us Westerners gain a more complete picture of Islam than the mass media usually provide."
-Laurinda Keys Long contributed to this article.

The Sema , symbolizing universal values of love and service, is performed only by the Order of the Whirling Dervishes, one branch of the vast Sufi tradition of Islam. The ritual dance consists of several stages with different meanings:
  • Naat-I-Sherif, a eulogy to the "Messenger of Islam" and all prophets before him.
  • A drumbeat symbolizing the divine command "Be" for the creation of the universe.
  • A Taksim, an improvisation on the reed flute, expressing the divine breath, which gives life to everything.
  • The Sultan Veled procession, accompanied by peshrev music; a circular, anticlockwise procession three times around the turning space.
  • During the Sema there are four selams, or musical movements, each with a distinct rhythm. At the beginning, during and close of each selam, the song praises God.
  • A recitation from the Quran.
  • The salute. The dervish demonstrates the number "1" in his appearance-arms humbly crossed-and by this, the unity of God.
  • A prayer for the peace of the souls of all the prophets and believers.

American Sufi Qawali Group, Fanna-Fi-Allah

In Monday, June 29, 2009

www.fanna-fi-allah.com

Your first impression of Fana-Fi-Allah[A sufi term, meaning Annihilation in God] will be some young American dudes from California, with some serious dreadlocks, playing Sufi Qawali music instead of Roots Reggae?!!
But don't let the looks deceive you, since Fanna-Fi-Allah are a very talented group of musicians who perform Sufi Qawali music to the words of Rumi, as well as the great Persian sufis of India, Baba Farid and Mouinudin Chisti.


"..Fanna Fi Allah’s leader, 28-year-old Tahir Qawwali, (born Geoffrey Lyons), began exploring Eastern music as a teenager, influenced by the Beatles’ use of Indian instruments. “A lot of (young) people look to alternatives,” he explains. “I really got into the Upanishads and studied Sanskrit and traditional classical Hindustani music.” At the age of 16 after studying tabla for two years, Tahir took himself off to India to apprentice as a student of voice and theory with his first musical guru, Pundit Pashupati Nath Mishra. While there, he also taught himself Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. Eventually he moved to Pakistan to become a student of Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan [nephew of the world’s most famous Qawwali singer, the late Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan] and Muazzam Ali Khan.



Amina Chisti, the female tabla player for Fanna Fi Allah, received formal initiation and training in Pakistan from the legendary Ustad Dildar Hussein Khan, who for 28 years was the tabla player for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. As the first woman in this genre of music her tabla playing is creating history in the Islamic world. “They don’t take every student - she got accepted and became very close to the [Rahat] Khan family,” Tahir says “Since then, for three months every year she’s been taken into their home where she lives and studies every day. They built a room for her in their house..”
Fanna Fi Allah made history in 2007 when Amina, the female Tabla player, received permission to participate in one of the largest annual Pakistani music festivals, commemorating the death of Sufi saint Data Hajveri[Data Ganj Bakhsh]. It was the first time in 670 years that a woman was permitted to perform inside an Islamic Shrine.In the following video, the showering of money, as a sign of approval, appreciation, and acceptance of their talents by the locals, is quite impressive and ironic. Ironic in the sense that wealth and Sufis are the two opposit poles!

Watch Fanna Fi Allah and her historic performance below:

The Reality And Deceptions Of The American Muslim Organizations & Scholars Like Hamza Yusuf The Sufi

From: The Revival Of Islam


May peace and blessing be upon those who follow the truth.

Today in the majority of the masjids in America we see people openly and proudly supporting democracy and the American government. We see these so-called Muslim organizations telling people to vote and to become active and support the system. These organization and their representatives such as Ahmed Bedier, Sheikhs like Hamza Yusuf and many others are actively dedicating their lives to calling the Muslims to support and promote democracy, an oppressive man made system which is killing Muslims worldwide at this present moment and we dont see the end in sight. They called people to vote for Bush and now Obama which is a kafir who openly who gives his full support for the illegal occupying state of Israel and has vowed to send an additional 30,000 plus troops to Afghanistan which was done to kill torture and bomb hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims in the name of democracy and human rights. The openly twist verses in Quran to justify their evil kufr. This is all nothing but a deception and needs to be exposed now. It is not a war against extremism, it is an all out war against Islam and those who want to follow it as it was revealed by our beloved Prophet SAW.

These people and their organizations act as if they have concern for the Ummah’ but this is another deception to gain your trust so that you support their message, which is to be a moderate Muslim who openly accepts man made laws and to stand with the Kuffar in their war against Muslims worldwide. This is a trap created by the American government and Zionist movement to divide Muslims and get them to be happy to live under tyrants who invade kill and slaughter in the name of peace. So who are these people and what is their intention? To change Islam by watering it down so that we coexist with the kuffar and willingly accept and promote their systems while they kill and plunder all the resources from the Muslim lands. The American government sustain Israel and it is the primary source keeping the tyrant arab leaders in power to oppress Islam and anyone who speaks the truth insuring and preventing the Muslims from ever establishing another Khilafah.

These people are agants who work for the kuffar to deceive the masses of Muslims so that they stand with them against the Ummah. They openly take the disbelievers as friends, protectors and allies instead of standing with the Ummah. They promote the system of shaytan which is democracy, capitalism, zionism, communism, socialism or any other man made systems which have only been created to to oppress and replace the system of Allah. We now see Muslims openly waving american flags in their support for the government. How could Muslims be so lost and ignorant? Prophet Muhammad SAW spoke against nationalism and said that it will be a disease that will carry on within the Ummah. So what about now when these governments are actively killing millions of Muslims worldwide, 3 million in Iraq alone and counting.

The Quran says that anyone who take the kuffar as friends, protectors or allies is one of them! Do we even know what the Quran says and what the religion tells us? Islam has come to dominate and spread justice and that alone will result in peace, but when you throw the book of Allah behind our backs and follow the ways and ideologies of the kuffar we lose. It is time that we wake up! All command is to Allah, Allah is far above these man made systems of the devil and they need to be exposed, democracy is unislamic and is the enemy of Allah and Islam and if you cannot see that then your heart is sealed and your comprehension of Islam is lost.

Prophet Muhammad SAW told a christian who was wearing a cross that they worship their priests and rabbis, and the christian replied, they do not worship them, and Rasool Allah SAW said, didnt they make the halal haram and the haram halal, and by following them you actually worship them!

So to obey is to worship! What about us today?

A Muslim accepts what has been revealed and opposes what Islam rejects. These peoples sole purpose is to divide us and conquer us all until we are no more. The Quran says that the kuffar will never be happy with you until you follow their way, what are their ways? imitating them by looking like them (shaving the beards etc.) dressing like them, living like them, talking like them, promoting their systems and laws, concepts and morals and obeying their law especially when it conflicts with what Allah has revealed. Obedience to them is disobedience to Allah. There is no God but Allah! D we really understand what that means? Islam is not a religion but a way of life! The Quran says that anyone who rules by other than the rule of Allah is a kafir! So what about these so-called Muslims who stand with them and call to their systems!

Do these Muslims ever speak out against the kuffar who kill, rape, detain and massacre Muslim worldwide? No they do not! they stand with the kuffar in their crusade against the Muslims! This is a fact and cannot be disputed. They stand with the kuffar and come into the house of Allah and promote the criminals and their evil systems on the mimbar of the Masjids! This is a clear evil deception and must be exposed. These people in reality are non Muslims, they are assisting the kuffar and deceiving the ignorant Muslims who are clueless to even the basic understanding of Islam. Let it be know, they are kuffar! Wake up now and read the Quran and think about what it is saying. There can be no confusion as Allah has said, verily this is a book wherein there is no doubt! Is Allah’s words not clear enough for us? We are being lied to about our brothers who fight in the path of Allah as well as everything else. What they utter is nothing but falsehood! We need to wake up to the lies and come back to our deen so that we may have success and stay far from aiding the enemies of Islam.

When a nation of kuffar invade the Muslim world by force and kill millions, torture our brothers and rape our sister and a Muslim fights back he is labeled a terrorist and when these america organizations and their puppets like Ahmed Bedier and Hamza Yusuf and others speak against them and the openly stand with the kuffar he himself become a kafir and actively misleads you all. Shame on you if you support these people hypocrites instead of your brothers and sister who suffer while you laugh and joke living a life of comfort filling your stomachs. Anyone who follows and supports these people cannot be a believer!

There is no Gob but Allah and Muhammad SAW is His Messenger!

Learn to understand what this statement means, Allah guides who He wills, whom Allah guides no man can mislead and whom he misleads you will never find for him a guide.

We call you all who are true to Allah to denounce this falsehood and stand for the truth. Give victory to Allah and he will give victory to you.

May Allah destroy the enemies of Islam and all the hypocrites who support them and give the Ummah victory.

……those who believe will recline on thrones raised up high in Palaces underneath which rivers flow therein they will have purified companions with wide eyes with whom they will be pleased…..

Shaykh Hisham Kabbani our inspiration to serve

Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

our inspiration to serve

Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

Chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America

Shaykh Hisham Kabbani is a prominent American Sufi Muslim scholar. He is a spiritual teacher of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order, and founder of the Sufi Muslim Council of UK. Shaykh Kabbani is also the founder and chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, the chairman of the American Muslim Assistance relief organization, the founder of Kamilat, an international Muslim women’s organization, the chairman of the As-Sunnah Foundation of America, and the founder and president of ‘Muslim Magazine.’

Shaykh Kabbani advocates an understanding of Islam fundamentally based on peace, tolerance, respect and love and is an outspoken critic of extremism. He works closely with the governments and people of Muslim nations around the world to restore traditional moderate Islamic practices and prevent the increase of religious radicalism. He has supported peace initiatives in the Middle East, Bosnia, Kashmir, Afghanistan and Kosovo.

::

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Houston, TX (PRWEB) June 28, 2011

On June 1, 2011 a lawsuit was filed by the estate of Milan Arthur Barackman by Michael Grant Mason. Mason filed the lawsuit thirty years after Barackman was exposed to asbestos on a United States Navy vessel. According to Mesothelioma.US, a news site for the disease, the lawsuit claims that Barackman was exposed to the material during the late 1960s and early 1970s and that he inhaled asbestos during these years, later resulting in his developing Mesothelioma. The estate of Barackman has filed a wrongful death suit against Foster Wheeler, Owens-Illinois Inc., General Electric Co., Uniroyal Inc., Riley Power Inc., Rapid American Corp. and Viacom Inc. with U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey presiding over Case No. 2:11-cv-01309. The suit claims that Barackman's diagnoses with Mesothelioma last year was a direct result of asbestos exposure.

Plaintiffs in the case argue that the listed defendants were allegedly manufacturing a dangerous product and yet gave no warning to Barackman or others of the dangers of being exposed to asbestos. This is not a single case. There are literally thousands of people suffering with this disease and more being diagnosed every day. Those who are diagnosed undergo Mesothelioma treatment which can be very expensive. Due to the fact that exposure to this dangerous product causes the disease, many seek compensation to pay for treatment of Mesothelioma as well as general pain and suffering.

Danziger & De Llano, LLP has been providing assistance to clients fighting Mesothelioma for a number of years. Those who have been exposed to asbestos and who are experiencing symptoms of Mesothelioma should contact the law firm for more information. Attorneys and staff can help clients to seek compensation for the treatment of Mesothelioma. Mesothelioma attorneys generally have more experience in representing clients against major companies. They can offer advice on the best route for the case as well as find information for clients about Mesothelioma clinical trials. The Law Offices of Danziger & De Llano, LLP offers experienced Mesothelioma lawyers who can help clients to seek compensation against companies that knowingly exposed them to hazardous products. When a case is accepted, a team of Mesothelioma lawyers as well as legal assistants and support staff is assigned to each client to help them to prepare for the legal process. Those who have Mesothelioma or have lost a loved one to this disease can contact the firm to speak with a qualified attorney or set up a consultation.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/06/28/prweb8585849.DTL#ixzz1QhGGnPi9

Lung cancer drug may also increase the survival rate of patients with pleural mesothelioma

Mesothelioma News





At the Annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, held from June 4 – 8 in Chicago, Illinois, Pfizer prevented its primary results from a clinical trial of their new, oral cancer drug crizotinib. Used as treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), crizotinib is doubling the survival rate of other drugs. The treatment only targets tumors with the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) genetic marker, which makes up only 3% to 5% of NSCLC cases. However, there may be a chance that the ALK marker could be found in pleural mesothelioma tumors.

Mesothelioma is a rare cancer that affects the lining of the body’s major organs and cavities, with the most common type, pleural, affecting specifically the lungs. It is caused almost exclusively by prolonged asbestos exposure and there is no known cure. The difference between lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma is that lung cancer consists of individual tumors with clear boundaries, while mesothelioma is a diffuse malignancy that blurs the boundaries between malignant and healthy tissue.

The recently revealed crizotinib results report that 74% of patients with advanced NSCLC treated with the drug were still alive after one year and 54% after two years. Typically, less than 20% of NSCLC patients survive past two years. The numbers decrease with mesothelioma, as the average life expectancy is between six and 18 months with treatment.

The fact that crizotinib is an ALK-inhibitor and showing successful results is contributing to the belief that focusing on personalized treatment targeted to a patient’s characteristics optimizes the potential for effective treatment and survival.

UH Cancer Center receives 2nd biggest donation ever

Michele Carbone
Michele Carbone
Mesothelioma is a rare, aggressive cancer in the lining of the lung and abdomen.


Mesothelioma is a rare, aggressive cancer in the lining of the lung and abdomen.
asbestos asbestos
Asbestos was often used at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard
Asbestos was often used at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard

KAKAAKO (HawaiiNewsNow) - Some of the world's leading research on mesothelioma cancer is happening right here at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center. The center recently received the second largest donation ever - specifically dedicated to finding ways to prevent and treat the disease.

UH researchers have made a series of scientific breakthroughs in mesothelioma, and now, they're getting a bigger shot in the arm - a gift of three and a half million dollars from an anonymous, mainland donor. The center is becoming one of the leading facilities for mesothelioma studies.

"Hawaii is in the center of the world because it's the bridge between Asia and the United States, so it's the perfect place if you want to run a big research team that involves research from different parts of the world," says Dr. Michele Carbone, the cancer center's director.

Mesothelioma is a rare, aggressive cancer in the lining of the lung and abdomen. Most of the time, it's caused by asbestos - a mineral fiber - that we inhale. Dr. Carbone says Hawaii has some of the higher rates of asbestos in the country, in large part because of materials once used at the Pearl Harbor shipyard. The disease develops after prolonged exposure and inhalation, but it's a longshot.

"Among people who are very heavily exposed, like asbestos miners, 4.6% of those who work in an asbestos mine for many years will develop mesothelioma," explains Carbone.

Because it takes decades to develop, doctors usually discover the disease in older patients between ages 60 and 80. The median survival time after diagnosis is 12 months.

Some in Hawaii who've developed the disease have sued. We've all seen those TV commercials saying, "If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you may be entitled to financial compensation. It's become a big moneymaker, according to Carbone. "Billions of dollars exchange hands every year around mesothelioma litigation."

Researchers hope continued discoveries - and generous donors - can help prevent and treat the disease before the cases ever have to head to court.

Copyright 2011 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

Simmons Law Firm Sponsors 11th Annual Malignant Mesothelioma Symposium

As part of the Simmons Law Firm’s efforts to support mesothelioma research and raise asbestos awareness, the firm is once again partnering with Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation to sponsor the 11th annual Malignant Mesothelioma Symposium. The symposium, held this year from June 23-25 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., features sessions with some of the nation’s leading mesothelioma doctors and advocates.

This year, Simmons Law Firm partner John Barnerd will participate in a panel to answer questions about the legal process for mesothelioma victims. The discussion will take place from 5:45 – 6:45 p.m. on June 23.

“The symposium provides a perfect opportunity for patients and their families to connect with each other and stay up-to-date on the latest medical research,” said Joy Wheeler, the Simmons Law Firm’s vice president of medical and patient relations. “As an advocate for victims of mesothelioma, we work to support the mesothelioma community in any way we can.”

The Simmons Law Firm’s sponsorship of the Malignant Mesothelioma Symposium is the latest in the firm’s ongoing support of mesothelioma research. To date, the Simmons Law Firm has donated over $2 million to the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, making it the research foundation’s top cumulative donor.

Through events like the annual Malignant Mesothelioma Symposium, the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation has been a leader in the fight against asbestos-related disease,” said John Simmons, founding partner of the Simmons Law Firm. “We are proud to team up with the foundation as they bring us closer to a cure.”

Register for the symposium and find a schedule of events through the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation.

About the Simmons Law Firm:

The Simmons Law Firm, headquartered in Alton, Ill., is one of the country’s leading asbestos and mesothelioma law firms. With offices in Illinois, Missouri and California, the firm’s lawyers have represented over 2,000 patients and families affected by mesothelioma in every state. The Simmons firm has pledged over $15 million to cancer research and proudly supports mesothelioma medical researchers throughout the country in order to find a cure. For more information about the Simmons firm

Multimodality Mesothelioma Therapy is Still the Best Option

Patient-centric treatment optimizes the potential for success of a patient’s care by offering the right treatment at the right time. This is especially vital for mesothelioma patients as the disease rapidly progresses to cause life-threatening complications, and can differ dramatically across patients. But before determining the optimal treatment for an individual, researchers need to gauge the efficacy of the available options.

In a recent article in the medical journal Current Treatment Options in Oncology, researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York, explore the benefits of the individual treatments for mesothelioma, as well as the three-pronged multi-mode approach using a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

Mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused pulmonary cancer, is diagnosed in close to 3,000 Americans each year. Most are workers who breathed or ingested asbestos dust at at-risk workplaces in New York and elsewhere. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is by far the most common form of mesothelioma.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma typically remains contained locally to the lining of the lung during much of its development, but spreads, or metastasizes, to other parts of the body in the later stages of the disease. For localized mesothelioma, surgeons often try to remove visible malignant tumors and use additional treatments of chemotherapy and radiation to manage the remaining cancer.

The two most common surgeries are pleurectomy/decortication (P/D), a procedure that strips away the diseased membrane lining the lung and visible tumors but spares the lung; and extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP), a more radical procedure that involves removal of a lung, the diseased lining of the chest cavity and heart, and a portion of the diaphragm. Which of the two surgeries to use on a patient is often debated in the medical community.

According to the article, the radical surgery, EPP, carries a significant incidence of patient mortality. Furthermore, many mesothelioma patients who survive radical surgery are too weakened to handle a full course of additional radiation and chemotherapy. The research found that those who had a P/D showed better outcomes among patients. Advances in administration of high-dose radiation have allowed targeted radiation therapy for patients who undergo the pleurectomy / decortication surgery.

Regardless of the surgery used, the MSKCC researchers say mesothelioma almost always recurs locally. To combat the aggressive asbestos cancer, oncologists typically follow the surgery with radiation to prevent the return of the localized cancer, and chemotherapy to reduce the risk of malignant cancer cells spreading to other parts of the body.

The researchers concluded that mesothelioma patients clearly benefit from multimodality therapy. The physician that best knows his patient should be able to determine the ideal combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation to personalize the mesothelioma care for optimal results.

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