Balkan Muslim youth embrace Ramadan fast

By Daria Sito-Sucic

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Mela Softic stopped drinking alcohol a month ago as part of her preparations for Ramadan fasting that began last Monday.

"This is the only religious holiday when I obey all the rules," said Softic, a 24-year-old junior marketing manager, joking that she was a "Muslim on batteries" since she behaved as a true believer only once a year.

Softic belongs to a new generation of urban Bosnian Muslims who embraced their faith during and after the 1992-95 war, in which the Muslims suffered the greatest losses. They come from families of moderate Muslims, most of whom were secular during the socialist era, when Bosnia was part of the former socialist Yugoslavia.

Obeying an Islamic taboo, many do not eat pork, which is seen rarely in Sarajevo butchers or on restaurant menus. But outside Ramadan, the majority still drink alcohol.

"All my Muslim friends are fasting," said the blue-eyed woman with a carefully coiffed bare head and smart business outfit.

The Bosnian capital Sarajevo had been known for its peaceful co-existence of Muslims, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians as well as Jews over the past five centuries.

But since the war it has become a predominantly Muslim city. The return to religion can be felt in all spheres of life, not least because Muslim politicians and Islamic clerics have promoted Muslim values.

"Religious identification has become much higher after the 1990s, and some studies have shown that nearly 90 percent of population in Bosnia identify themselves according to their respective religion," said Zilka Spahic-Siljak, coordinator of religious studies at the University of Sarajevo.

She explained the trend partly by the war and partly by a new political and social system following Yugoslavia's break-up.

Before the war, urban Muslims preserved religion in their homes only as part of their family tradition and culture, but religious customs were rarely observed.

"Religion had been pushed out of the public sphere before the 1990s and then freedom arrived and people opted to express publicly their religious identity," she said.

Softic said all Muslim students in her high school fasted during Ramadan and that it was something of a trend which students of other faiths respected.

"I know many people of other faiths who really respect Ramadan, and I find it great," she said. "I have Catholic and Orthodox friends who don't drink during Ramadan."

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In nearby Albania, where religion had been virtually erased under the Communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, the majority Muslim population is still overwhelmingly secular but imams and Islamic scholars say more young people are coming to mosques.