Under the watchful eyes of steel-helmeted police, the world's oldest university began its 1,006th academic year in Cairo last week. The cops were just a precaution in a land hot over the Palestine question: the 11,000 students at Al Azhar ("The Resplendent") University take their politics as seriously as their Moslem faith. It is not just boyish prankishness either; some of the "undergrads" have been going to school for 15 or 20 years.
Al Azhar pays all its students a regular salary (from $2 to $12 a month) instead of charging them tuition. It...
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