By Wafa Amr
Reuters
Tuesday, October 2, 2007; 8:54 PM
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Five years ago restaurants in Ramallah would stay open all day and serve beer throughout Ramadan. This year virtually all removed alcohol from the menu completely and many closed during the fasting hours.
The change highlights what some see as a trend: faced with a sluggish economy, infighting between rival factions and low hopes for peace with Israel and a state of their own, thousands of Palestinians seem to be turning to God.
The evidence is patchy and anecdotal, and for some there is a hint of coercion. But 24-year-old Huda, who declined to give her last name, said her friends could hardly believe it when, as a liberal young Palestinian woman, she decided to observe the fast.
"I'm not a fanatic but I have some religious feelings inside me and I wanted to try fasting this year," she said. "My friends are astonished at this sudden change."
Not all Palestinians have turned religious -- indeed what many see as the politicization of Islam by the factions, whose warfare in the Gaza Strip gave Hamas control of the enclave in June, is driving some away from mosques.
But university professor Marwan Abu Khalaf, 50, says the number of young men attending the mosque next door to his house has grown steadily.
"I have prayed regularly for the past 10 years and I can say there has been a rise of about 25 percent in the number of young men who come to pray," Abu Khalaf told Reuters.
In traditionally conservative West Bank cities like Hebron, Qalqilya or Tulkarm women have generally worn headscarves. But some say the rise of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and in large West Bank cities like Nablus has prompted more women to wear veils and men to grow beards.
In Ramallah -- the West Bank's economic hub and for years a thriving secular city -- some women are adopting more modest dress. Fewer wear short skirts or sleeveless shirts in central Ramallah while more also don a headscarf and long robes.
"Women who do wear short skirts feel out of place or are harassed by comments from men on the streets," said Eman Hammouri, director of the city's Popular Arts Centre.
DEEPENING FAITH
Both Fatah and Hamas are trying to exploit Palestinians' new-found piety for their own gain. Hamas has used mosques and schools to spread its political views while Fatah has been using Friday prayers in the Gaza Strip to protest against Hamas' rule.
Some Palestinians say militant groups are using religion as an excuse to force their will on people.
Osama Khalaf, owner of Darna, one of Ramallah's best known and most fashionable restaurants, said he stopped serving alcohol during Ramadan for fear of retaliation by secular armed groups using religion as an excuse to throw their weight around.
Khalaf said both Muslim and Christian West Bankers, who make up about 2 percent of Palestinians, were becoming more religious amid tougher living conditions. Crucifixes are worn more widely and church attendance appears up.
"Not only the Muslims are becoming more religious," Khalaf said. "But the Christian minority are also adhering much more strictly to Christianity as a reaction to the more religious environment around them."
INFIGHTING
Last month, a woman wearing the hijab and covering her face with a black veil in a doctor's waiting room shouted at the secretary for watching Arab music videos on television -- many Muslims consider such material to be prohibited by Islam.
"This has never happened before in my clinic," said the doctor, who asked to remain anonymous.
Some analysts said a new sense of despair may have prompted more Palestinians to seek comfort in religion.
Fed up with corruption within the secular Fatah faction that for decades dominated the political scene, Palestinians elected a Hamas government in 2006 parliamentary elections, hoping the Islamist group would rid local politics of sleaze.
Hamas seized control of the more conservative Gaza Strip in June after violent clashes with Fatah, prompting President Mahmoud Abbas to sack the government and appoint a new Fatah-backed administration.
Despite a new U.S.-led drive for peace with Israel, the internal strife and the split between Gaza and the West Bank has for most Palestinians jettisoned hopes for an independent Palestinian state, at least for now.
"In the absence of alternatives, they turn to God for spiritual stability and security," said Mahmoud Habbash, agriculture minister in the West Bank's Fatah-backed government.
(Additional reporting by Wael al-Ahmad in Jenin and Atef Saad in Nablus)
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