468 Annabelle Böttcher
why the Salafis have chosen this location in eastern Germany. It prob-
ably facilitates the community’s expansion because there are few oth-
ers in this part of Germany, which means that Salafis do not have to
compete in an environment with previously established Sufi-oriented
Turkish or Kurdish Islamic communities. In Germany, the right of
religious freedom is stipulated in the constitution. This also applies
to Muslims residing in Germany, but until now the German govern-
ment and associated institutions, such as the political parties and their
foundations, have persistently resisted recognizing institutional Islam
as a “Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts” (body under public law),
and as a consequence the Islamic community is not recognized as hav-
ing equal standing with the Catholic and the Protestant Church or
the Jewish communities.^23 Institutionalized Islam in Germany usually
appears as a “registered association” (eingetragener Verein). Mosques
and Islamic centres function on the basis of this legal concept.
This is also the case for the Salafi community in Leipzig. The cen-
tre of their institutionalized network is the al-Raḥmān mosque not far
from Leipzig’s main train station.^24 It was founded by Ḥasan Dabbāgh,
a German national of Syrian origin, and his wife, Umm ʿAbd Allāh in
1995.^25 They form a sort of Salafi dual-career couple. Ḥasan Dabbāgh
came to Germany to study medicine but never finished. Looking for
an alternative professional pathway in the stagnating German econo-
my, he found a niche on the Islamic religious market and managed to
successfully establish himself as a religious entrepreneur. In 1995 he
assumed the position of a prayer leader and manager of al-Raḥmān
Mosque in Leipzig and in 1998 he opened a mosque, where he has
since been lecturing and preaching in Arabic and staccato German.^26
Ḥasan Dabbāgh never studied Islamic law or theology in an accred-
ited Islamic institution such as the Faculty of Islamic Law in Damas-
23 For this problem, consult Rohe, Mathias: Zur öffentlich-rechtlichen Situation
von Muslimen in ausgewählten europäischen Ländern, Vienna 2006, pp. 11–15.
24 Spiewak, Martin: Vorbeter aus der Fremde, in: DIE ZEIT 39 (Sept. 21, 2006);
online: http://www.zeit.de/2006/39/Imame_2?page=all, accessed Dec. 03, 2010.
25 For more details about mosque associations in Germany, see Marfa, Entwick-
lung der islamischen Gemeinschaft, pp. 70–74.
26 See for example his Friday prayers under: http://www.gamesfather.com/video/
Search-Chutba-updated-1.htm, accessed Dec. 03, 2010. His Friday sermons
can also be downloaded as video clips from the website of “as-Sunna-Verlag.
de”. For example Dabbāgh, Ḥasan: Das Loben, eine Waffe mit zwei Seite. Fri-
day prayer dated Jan. 25, 2008; online: http://www.as-sunna-verlag.de/index.
php?cat_c55_Scheich-Dr-Hassan-Dabbagh.html, accessed May 30, 2008.
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