BAGHDAD - The spectacle of students dressed in black, many beating themselves with their fists, following an imitation coffin through the campus of Baghdad's Mustansiriyah University was not one its secular professors had sought on their syllabuses.

They knew that the procession in remembrance of the death of a revered Shia cleric would only further inflame sectarian and political squabbles. But no one in authority did anything to stop it, despite the private protestations of senior faculty members. They knew that to do so would risk a riot.

Despite once priding themselves on secular and Westernized attitudes -- while having to be slavishly obedient to Saddam Hussein -- Iraq's universities are increasingly marked by fundamentalism and political struggle.

Elsewhere the country's ethnic and sectarian groups increasingly have less contact with each other -- leaving homes and businesses in mixed areas to the relative safety of those dominated by their own kind -- but on campuses rival groups still study side by side.

This daily contact, mixed with the inevitable over-excitability of youth, has resulted in reports of a growing number of extremist-inspired incidents.

Students tell of political organizations picketing opponents' university meetings, fights breaking out and even the assassination of moderate professors who try to control the worst excesses on their campuses.

Now, with politics particularly fervent as a result of the recent national elections and the negotiations going on among leading parties to form a new government, many are refusing to go to classes to avoid the increasingly frantic politicking and dangers. Entering Baghdad University, the walls are festooned with banners and posters for the leading parties.

"It does not seem like a university any more," said Amir, 21, a third-year communications student.

"People are struggling or quarrelling with each other. The dean has faced two assassination attempts and now she does not say what to do and what not to do. In lectures, students even start chants with the party they support and the lecture turns to chaos."

© National Post 2006