Holy Days No Solace for Bosnian Muslim Refugee : Religion: At 90, woman who fled war-torn Sarajevo fears she might be spending her last Ramadan away from homeland.

Sadika Dzinovic observes Ramadan every year. But this year, the holy month takes on a new urgency.

This will be her first Ramadan away from her hometown, war-torn Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina. And the 90-year-old Muslim, who left Sarajevo Feb. 3 to live with her daughter in Anaheim Hills, said she fears that this will be her final observance of the holy month before she dies--in a country far from her birthplace.

For Dzinovic and other Bosnian Muslims living in Orange County, this year’s Ramadan--the Islamic holy month that begins Saturday--takes on a more poignant meaning as they began their religious rituals that include 30 days of fasting. More than a traditional practice, Bosnian Muslims here say, the fasting now symbolizes their joining in the suffering in their homeland.

“You can observe Ramadan anywhere, but I’m sad that I’m doing it here this year away from my home,” Dzinovic said, speaking in Bosnian as her daughter, Sabi Zagwolsky, translated. “My heart is home with my country, my neighbors, my friends, my children and their children.

“I pray to God for all of them,” she said, her hand touching her trembling lips. “I pray to God to forgive me because my health doesn’t allow me to suffer with them, if only for a while.”

Dzinovic is one of about 30 Bosnian Muslims among Orange County’s 20,000 Muslims who will join other members of their faith worldwide in observance of Ramadan. The Islamic holy month is celebrated as the period when God revealed to the prophet Mohammed the Koran, Islam’s holy book. It is a time of religious renewal, self-discipline and charity.

Ramadan falls during the ninth month of the lunar year, beginning on the first day of the month after a new moon has been sighted. For 30 days, Muslims abstain from food, alcohol and other pleasures from dawn until sunset. After the last day of fasting, Ramadan ends with a prayer and a traditional celebratory feast, Eid Ul-Fidr .

“This month is like a retreat for Muslims without them leaving the daily routines,” said Ihsan Bagby, a spokesman for the American Counsel for Public Affairs, a Muslim organization that dispenses information about the religion. “Muslims are to focus their attention on God and try to live out as goodly and saintly a life as possible during these days.”

Traditionally, Ramadan is a time for Muslims to be introspective, to examine and be thankful for what they have and, through their fasting, empathize with those who are less fortunate.

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Local Bosnian Muslims say this is a fitting time for them, given their country’s ongoing turmoil. Last Saturday, 68 people were killed when a 120-millimeter mortar round was fired into an open market in Sarajevo. On Wednesday, NATO threatened the Serbs with air strikes if they do not withdraw their heavy weapons surrounding Sarajevo or place the arms under United Nations control.

For Mustafa Kuchevich of Laguna Hills there is not a day that goes by that he doesn’t think about the fighting in Bosnia. Pain sears his soul, he said, because he cannot help those who are fighting.

“I can’t escape it,” Kuchevich, 32, said sadly. “I come to work in the morning always sick in my stomach from reading the papers and seeing the news.”

In a very small way, Kuchevich said, fasting during Ramadan will allow him to feel the hunger the Bosnians at home are experiencing.

“I think of the Muslim soldiers and I think that they are fasting every day because they do not have enough food,” said Kuchevich, who came to the United States 10 years ago. “Every day, and especially during this Ramadan, we will pray for them. In our fasting, we will feel their hunger--and their strength.”

In turn, Kuchevich said, the Bosnian soldiers “will feel our strength, know that spiritually we are with them, and this will make them stronger.”

For Dzinovic, who has fresh memories left over from the war from which she physically escaped last week, there is so much to pray for in Bosnia. First and foremost, she prays for the safety of her two sons, who fight for the Bosnian army, and their children who remained behind.

“It is so quiet and peaceful here,” Dzinovic said as she looked beyond the glass back door into the serene mountains. “The place where my children and grandchildren are, it is dark and it has no life. And it breaks my heart that they are there, hungry and scared, while I am here, safe.”

Dzinovic said that if there is one bright spot right now--aside from being alive and near her family in Orange County--it is that she can pray during this year’s Ramadan in peace and without fear.

“I could not concentrate on my prayers last year because off all the noise, all the bombings in the background,” she said. “This time, I will be in peace as I pray for my family and my people.”