Islamic Fervor

Fundamentalism on campus

"In the name of God, this is our starting point." So proclaimed the large, white handbills attached last week to walls, bulletin boards and trees on the campus of Bir Zeit University in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The message continued:' "The Islamic trend should be permitted to spread, particularly in Palestine. The Communists and the troublemakers, the enemies of Islam, have made many attempts to disturb our active life at the university." The spokesmen of the "Islamic trend" were identified at the bottom of the page as the Islamic-controlled student councils of Najah University in Nablus, Hebron College in Hebron and eight other student groups in the West Bank and Gaza.

In one of the more remarkable developments on the West Bank since the Israeli occupation began 14 years ago, student supporters of a Khomeini-type Islamic fundamentalism are challenging the hitherto undisputed dominance of the leftists within the intellectual leadership of Palestinian nationalism. In essence, the fundamentalists object to the P.L.O. goal of forming a secular state. Demanded a student handbill with a rhetorical flourish: "Why should we not respond to the leader of this community, Muhammad, who said: 'Say there is no God but God, and we shall prevail'?"

Within hours, the Palestine Liberation Organization or its sympathizers responded with notices that condemned "the crimes committed by the Muslim brothers at nationalist Najah University." It hailed the P.L.O. as "the sole representative of our people" and concluded: "Glory to the martyrs of the Palestinian revolution."

The poster war reflected the animosity between the predominantly secular political leadership of the P.L.O. on the West Bank and the fast-growing Islamic movement among students. The exchange was triggered by an ugly riot at the five-year-old Najah University on Jan. 9 when, for perhaps the first time on the West Bank, the targets of a mob of Arab students were not Israeli soldiers but fellow students and faculty members. Among the grievances of the Islamic fundamentalist protesters was the recent reinstatement of four leftist instructors who had previously been dismissed, in part for their political views. The university has remained closed since the riot.

The signs of fundamentalist renascence are widespread on campus. At Bir Zeit, where Muslims claim the support of well over a third of the students, the Muslims tend to organize themselves tightly around such communal activities as studying the Koran, praying and fasting. At Najah most of the female students wear the ankle-length dresses and head scarves favored by religious Muslim women. In a sparsely furnished off-campus room last week, several earnest students explained their new-found beliefs to TIME Jerusalem Bureau Chief David Aikman. Said Samir Namir, 21, a Middle East studies and political science major: "We are trying to return to the origins of Islam. In the past 100 years, all of the non-Islamic solutions attempted in the Arab world have failed." Added bearded Ziad Hamdan, 21: "Islam is the only solution to the problem of Palestine. The Koran predicted the creation of a Jewish state 1,400 years ago, and also its conquest by Muslims."

Many West Bankers attribute the new Islamic movement not only to the antileftist backlash but to a more profound disillusionment with aspects of Western culture, such as movies, drinking and the changing relationship between the sexes, that have been imported into the West Bank since 1967. Says Ribhi Abu-Sinanah, dean of Hebron Polytechnic: "The Arab countries have been open to Western culture. This openness has resulted in nothing positive. We have been defeated." In general agreement, an Israeli political scientist remarks: "To some extent this phenomenon is the result of a widespread despair. The Palestinians don't want us, they're terrified of the P.L.O., they don't like the Jordanians, so this is a way of entering a shell. It is an area that Israel can't really touch."

For the moment, Israeli authorities seem to derive a certain relish from the Arab-vs.-Arab unrest. But they realize that a militant fundamentalism, implacably opposed to Israeli control, would make their long-term occupation of the area much more difficult. Says one Israeli official on the West Bank: "If this develops, it will be hell."

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