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muhammad shahrur’s life and workxxviiMany authors regarded their refutations as a kind of ‘protective wall’to shield Muslim youths from the dangerous influences of the book. 35Books published against Shahrur grew bigger and thicker, providinga comprehensive, page-by-page refutation of the already voluminousbook by Shahrur. The two publications by #Abd al-RaÈm§n \asan\abannaka al-Mayd§nÊ (1997) 36 and MuÈammad ‘ayy§È al-Ma#ar -r§wiyya (2000), which concluded the fiercest phase of the controversy,aimed to provide the theological means to prove everyargument of Shahrur wrong by delivering a counterargument. 37Compared to other cases outside Syria the Shahrur case has beena relatively restrained and civilized affair. It never made it to thecivil courts in Damascus, and the author has never been officiallyaccused of blasphemy, disbelief or apostasy as happened elsewhere.There has not even been a public hearing where the author had todefend his position, and there has certainly not been any attempt toarrest him. No one has dared publicly to declare Shahrur a renegade,and although the author has received a considerable amount of hatemail there has been no immediate threat to his safety or life. Hisbooks have not been confiscated by the Syrian police even thoughhis first book was officially banned in Egypt and temporarily forbiddenin Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Following his retirement from hisposition at Damascus University in 1998, Shahrur accepted severalinvitations from universities in and outside the Arab world (e.g. theLebanon, Bahrayn, Morocco, Turkey, United States, Germany), andhe could travel to all these places without any interference by Syria’s35Most vividly: MuÈammad Sa#Êd al-•abb§#, Ris§la…wa-Radd il§ dh§k al-rajul(A Message…and A Refutation for that Man), (Damascus: Maãba#at al-‘ubul, n.d).Compare this to similar responses in Egypt after the publication of a series of articleson the Qur"an (“Muȧwala li-fahm #aßrÊ li’l-qur"§n”) by Mußãaf§ MaÈmåd in themagazine ‘ab§È al-Khayr, see: J. J. G. Jansen, “Polemics on Mustafa Mahmud’sKoran Exegesis,” in Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the Union Européenne des Arabisantset Islamists (1978), ed. R. Peters, 110–22 (Leiden: Brill, 1981).36#Abd al-RaÈm§n \asan \abannaka al-Mayd§nÊ, al-TaÈrÊf al-mu#§ßir fi’l-dÊn:Tasallul fi’l-anf§q ba#d al-suqåã fi’l-a#m§q—makÊda al-m§rksiyya wa’l-b§ãiniyya al-mu#§ßirataÈt shi#§r qir§"at mu#§ßira li’l-nußåß al-isl§miyya (The Contemporary Deviation fromReligion: The Infiltration into Tunnels after going Underground—The Conspiracyof Marxism and of the Contemporary Batiniyya Sect with the Slogan of a ContemporaryReading of the Islamic Texts), (Damascus: D§r al-Qalam, 1997).37This summary of the Shahrur controversy is a shortened version of the accountpublished in: Andreas Christmann, “73 Proofs of Dilettantism: The Construction ofNorm and Deviancy in the Responses to ‘al-Kit§b wa’l-Qur"§n: Qir§"a Mu#§ßira’ byMohamad Shahrour,” Die Welt des Islam 45, no. 1 (2005): 20–73.