470 Annabelle Böttcher
German locations – were searched by the German police to look for
evidence of their adherence to radical Salafi networks.^33 In May 2009,
he was accused of encouraging German converts to become radical
Muslims^34 , of having spread hatred against non-Muslims through his
publishing houses As-Sunna and Al-Tamhid and of having glorified
jihad and terror.^35 The charges were later suspended.^36 In an interview
given to the Leipziger Volkszeitung in May 2009, Dabbāgh expressed
his frustration about the surveillance and “misunderstandings”.^37
1.2. Gendered Access to Salafi IslamAn autodidactic approach to Islamic learning is a feature of Salafi Islam
and also practised by Shaykh Ḥasan’s wife, Umm ʿAbd Allāh, who is a
key player in this centre. Meanwhile a German national, she is a native
of Qamishly, a Syrian town in a predominantly Kurdish area of Syria.
Originally, she came to Germany to study business computing, hence
her excellent German.^38 She described herself as a convert to Salafi Islam
but unlike other “female Salafi converts”, she did not adopt the Salafi
dress code. Instead, she continues to wear the Syrian fashion: a black
long coat, a black veil, and a typically Syrian face veil (mandīl) in black,
covering the lower part of her face. This dress code does not signal the
sungsschutz.sachsen.de/download/al-Rahman-Moschee_e._V._HB_2009.pdf,
accessed Dec. 11, 2010.
33 Musharbash, Yassin: Staatsanwalt sucht Beweise gegen Radikalisierer-Netz-
werk, in: Der Spiegel (April 23, 2008); online: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/
deutschland/0,1518,549200,00.html, accessed Dec. 11, 2010.
34 Leipziger Imam unter Verdacht, in: Focus Online (May 5, 2009); online: http://
http://www.focus.de/politik/deutschland/volksverhetzung-leipziger-imam-unter-
verdacht_aid_402279.html, accessed Dec. 10, 2010; Landesamt für Verfassungss-
chutz Sachsen: Kurzinformationen, Dresden Sept. 22, 2009; online: http://www.
verfassungsschutz.sachsen.de/download/MoBe_08_2009.pdf, accessed Dec. 11,
2010.
35 Anklage gegen Missionare des Terrors, in: Focus Online (Aug. 29, 2009); online:
http://www.focus.de/politik/deutschland/islamisten-anklage-gegen-mission-
are-des-terrors_aid_430708.html, accessed Dec. 11, 2010.
36 Statement on the Salafi internetforum Dawa-news.net; online: http://dawa-
news.net/tag/hassan-dabbagh/, accessed Dec. 11, 2010.
37 Krutsch, Peter: Ich fuehle mich als Suendenbock missbraucht, in: Leipziger
Volkszeitung (May 26, 2009).
38 Informal conversation with Umm ʿAbd Allāh on May 29, 2004 in al-Nūr
Mosque in Berlin.
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