MIDDLE EAST: Despite popular concerns the poll-winning Palestinian party may introduce Sharia law, their pragmatism could well preclude this, writes Nuala Haughey in Gaza and Ramallah
"Islam is the solution" ran one of the campaign slogans of Hamas, whose landslide victory in Palestinian parliamentary polls last week has fuelled concerns among liberals fearful the conservative religious beliefs of the Islamists will mean unwelcome changes.
Within days of their stunning electoral success, several new Hamas parliamentarians, including politburo member Mahmoud Ramahi, advocated the introduction of Islamic canon - or Sharia - law as a source of future legislation.
Another has reportedly called for a bill to oblige all Palestinian women to wear headscarves, while a third wants to introduce a more Islamic school curriculum and make mandatory the already-common practice of separating boys and girls in schools.
While jubilant Hamas supporters streamed through the streets of Ramallah last week, one bearded activist strode into a café serving alcohol and announced to stunned diners "You have two days" - a statement interpreted as a closure threat.
"I have very mixed feelings about Hamas's success," says Nahed Awwad, a 33-year-old Muslim film-maker from Ramallah who, like many women in the city dubbed the cultural capital of the West Bank, does not wear the Islamic head covering, the hijab.
"They might be better than Fatah if they negotiate with Israel, but I am worried that they will force religious things on people. I think they will be stupid to do this but I am afraid in the long run, if they take over educational and cultural ministries, what kinds of laws they will start to introduce."
"We're soon going to be selling green flowers only," quips Anwar Kurdin (39), who owns the Red Rose flower shop in Ramallah, in reference to the colour of Hamas's posters and banners.
"To be honest I am a bit afraid," he concedes. "Although I don't think they are going to reach people's fears. In Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, there are a lot of Christians and Muslims living in peace and I don't think Hamas will even try to change the social aspects in the cities."
Ramallah is the most liberal city of the West Bank and Gaza, and its trendy bars and restaurants serve Palestinian-brewed beer and other alcohol, strictly forbidden under Islam. Women wearing skin-tight jeans and high-heels are almost as commonplace in the city as those wearing hijabs and the modestly traditional floor-length coats, jilbabs.
Hamas spokesmen insist the movement does not plan to impose the hijab or make other conservative social changes in the wake of its defeat of President Mahmoud Abbas's more secular Fatah movement.
"We will not intervene in any aspect of Palestinian life . . . except to convince people in a polite way," said Mr Ramahi, a newly elected Hamas parliamentarian last weekend.
"We are making efforts so that the Sharia will be the source of legislation but, in order to implement Islamic rule, this needs a state. When we get a state, we will leave it to people to choose . . . by holding a referendum, and we are sure the Palestinian people will choose Islam."
Hamas's track record on religious tolerance in municipalities taken over since local elections has reassured many the deeply pragmatic movement will not force rigid social mores on a society with Christian and secular minorities. In the traditionally Christian town of Bethlehem, which relies heavily on tourism, restaurants serving alcohol have remained open under a Hamas-dominated local council; in Ramallah, the organisation recently supported the election of a female Christian mayor.
However, Qalqilya's Hamas-dominated town council cancelled an outdoor music festival last summer because it disapproved of such a "westernised" event where men and women would mix.
Memories also linger of Hamas's campaign during the first intifada of the late 1980s to force Palestinian women to wear the hijab, which led to unveiled women being stoned.
Dr Islah Jad, a lecturer in politics and women's studies at Birzeit University near Ramallah, says fears that Hamas will press for compulsory Islamisation are unfounded. Even though its official charter may remain conservative, Dr Jad says she is optimistic, "based on the continuous changing in Hamas's programme vision".
In Hamas's Gaza stronghold, Christians joke they already live under effective Islamic law in the traditionally conservative Palestinian enclave.
Asked about the possible mandatory introduction of the hijab, Sana Tarazi from the Greek Orthodox church of St Porphyrous said she had heard this would not happen.
"They said this is not real, that you are free to be as you like. Then we heard about the hijab. We are still waiting for the final results."