Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya as Changing Salafi Icons 485
dactic strategies in acquiring religious learning as part of extended indi-
vidual solution-finding. Another result is that Muslims in Germany
show a strong transnational orientation toward renowned religious
authorities residing outside Europe. While in general Muslims take
recourse to the religious authority in their country of origin, this is
not the case for Shaykh Ḥasan and his al-Raḥmān Mosque. It is hardly
imaginable that he would have been able to achieve a similar type of
“career” either in his home state Syria or in Saudi Arabia itself. Rather,
it is the convenient German setting with its various options and ame-
nities that allows adepts of Salafi doctrines to fashion themselves and
carve out a niche.
2. Salafi Religious Authorities in Combat Zones
In the second scenario, the focus is on a political setting where Salafis
come under intense outside pressure, whether because they are engaged
in armed struggle in combat zones such as Iraq or because they are
persecuted for adhering to some Salafi interpretation of Islam. What
religious authorities do such Salafis tend to rely on in a setting of this
type? Do Ibn Taymiyya and his students come to constitute a source of
inspiration? A study entitled “Militant Ideology Atlas” by a group of
researchers of the “Combating Terrorism Center” at the U. S. military
academy West Point very meticulously documents the sources used by
scholars and activists generally believed to be members of al-Qāʿida.
Unlike the Salafis in Leipzig, many of those scholars and activists have
a solid Islamic education. It is a compilation of the “most popular texts”
by Salafi intellectuals read by radical Salafis.^110 Ibn Taymiyya is among
the most frequently cited references in al-Qāʿida’s most widely read
texts.^111 The texts of radical authors, such as ʿAbd Allāh ʿAzzām, Abū
Baṣīr al-Ṭarṭūsī, Abū Qaṭādā al-Filisṭīnī, Abū Muḥammad al-Maqdisī,
and Usāma b. Lādin were screened according to their reference to
other authors. The study revealed that out of a total of 95 texts, Ibn
Taymiyya was cited in 47 and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya in 25 of them.
When it comes to the frequency of authors cited, Ibn Taymiyya was
referred to in 25 writings. His student Ibn al-Qayyim was cited in
110 McCants, William: Militant Ideology Atlas. Research Compendium, New
York 2006, p. 7.
111 Ibid, pp. 8–23.
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