Asaf Duraković

Asaf Duraković (born May 16, 1940) is a Croatian physician of Bosniak ancestry and expert in nuclear medicine and depleted uranium.^[1][2] He is also known for his poetry and verses.

Duraković was born in Stolac, Bosnia and Herzegovina and educated at the University of Zagreb in Zagreb, Croatia where he earned both master's and doctoral degrees. During this time he worked at the Ruđer Bošković Institute. Afterwards he continued with post-doctoral work at Oxford University. In 1968 he immigrated to Canada, where he attended McMaster University in Hamilton.^[3] He worked at the University of Toronto, the University of Washington, and University of Rochester (UofR). He has been associated with the Croatian Literary Journal.^[4] Durakovic is the one of the co-founders of Croatian Islamic Centre in Etobicoke, Toronto. Construction was over on June 23, 1973. Its mosque is the oldest in Toronto. The minaret is Osmani-style and it is the oldest minaret in Ontario.^[5]

In 1990, Duraković was one of the founders of the Croatian Muslim Democratic Party, formed in Zagreb.

Dr. Duraković, a former U.S. army Colonel, was Chief of the Nuclear Sciences Division of the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, and worked at the VA hospital in Wilmington, DE. His employment was terminated after he refused to end his research on the potential health effects Depleted uranium and normal Uranium.^[6] He founded, and is Medical Research Director of, the Toronto-based Uranium Medical Research Centre which continues this research. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of and contributor to the Croatian Medical Journal.^[7]

Duraković also founded the World Life Institute,^[8] an international non-profit humanitarian organization based in Orleans County, New York.

Works

Poetry

• Dark Sea-Weeds
• Smoke and Mist
• Paths of Ahasver

Politics

• From Bleiburg to Muslim Nation (Vedrina, Toronto, 1972)
• Status of Moslim People in Croatian National Community (Vedrina, Toronto, 1973)

References