Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya as Changing Salafi Icons 481
itself. In addition, the scarcity of Ibn Taymiyya’s texts is stunning.
A possible explanation is that the website reflects to some extent the
level of scholarship within the group. It is unlikely that other texts
circulate in hardcopy because those who engage in the effort of trans-
lating certainly would want their texts to be made available to a wider
German-speaking audience. The website is a tool in their own learn-
ing and framing process. It provides them with information about
their “space of reference”. According to their website, they are still
in the early phase of Salafi scholarship. At this stage, Ibn al-Qayyim’s
pious pedagogical texts are more attractive to them than the much
harsher Ibn Taymiyya, who quite obviously does not have much to
offer to them so far. This impression is also confirmed by an analysis
of the other websites the group entertains: sections with audio-units,
legal judgments (fatāwā), and products for sale are dispersed on the
group’s other websites. Instead of including all in one website, the
group opened a website for each category. This is most likely not a
coincidence, but might be the result of a conscious division of labour
among the members of the group. A website offering legal judgments
(fatāwā) was opened in February 2004 under http://www.fataawa.de.^90 It
contains a small collection of juridical opinions in accordance with
the principles of Islamic jurisprudence. On the front page, an anony-
mous author advertises the website as the “first fataawawebsite in the
German language”.^91 In it is explained that since “we” cannot make
legal judgments on our own, “we” have to revert to the “scholars of
Islam”. And, the editor goes on to explain: they are the scholars of
“Ahlal Sunna wal Dschama’a”,^92 the synonym of “Ahlal Hadith”,^93
not to be confounded with those of the “Ahlal Bida’a”.^94 These
legal judgments are taken from Saudi websites, such as the one from
Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ al-Munajjid (b. 1961/1381)^95 and are translated into
German, sometimes very amateurishly. By providing access to a small
selection of judgments issued by former students of famous represen-
tatives of Saudi state Islam, like Ibn Bāz, Ibn ʿUthaymīn, and others,
90 Announcement to subscribers of the electronic newsletter Salaf.de News dated
February 9, 2004.
91 http://www.fataawa.de/index02.html, accessed Dec. 04, 2010.
92 People of the Sunna and the Community.
93 People of the Prophetic traditions.
94 People of deviation. See http://www.fataawa.de/index02.html, accessed Dec.
04, 2010.
95 For his homepage see http://www.islam-qa.com/ar, accessed Dec. 04, 2010.
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