This sect is characterised by a number of features, the most essential being;- They follow the heretical theological doctrine of Ibn Taymiyyah, adopting an anthropomorphic interpretation of the divine attributes and a division of the oneness (tawhid) of Allah into tahwid ar-rububiyya (oneness of lordship) and tawhid al-uluhiyya (oneness of divinity).This doctrinal position allows them to declare deviant and apostate all those who do not agree with their beliefs. That includes the overwhelming majority of the orthodox traditional Muslims who adhere to the Ash�ari and Maturidi schools of thought.

- They do not adhere to any of the four recognised fiqh madhhabs (school of Islamic law).This doctrinal position enables them to generate their own fatwas (Islamic rulings) on the basis of their free interpretation of the sacred texts, i.e. the Quran and the Sunna, without the foundation of the precedents of a school of law, nor the strict legal methodological protocols and procedures that ought to be followed in order to generate a properly balanced and substantiated fatwa.Obviously, their disassociation from any of the four authoritative schools of law allows them to issue fatwas based on their whims and compulsive urges for violence and extremism.- An absolute lack of understanding of the lofty status that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) deserves in the heart of every Muslim. That is caused by an intrinsic incapacity to love and an inherent nihilistic approach to life and death. Their belittling of the Prophet�s (peace be upon him) status takes them to condemn all kind of activities and practices that traditional Muslims perform in order to increase that love for the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), whose main description is Rahmatan lil �Alamin (a mercy for all worlds) (Quran 21:107).This attitude towards the expression of love and affection towards the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) deprives their followers of any kind of feelings of mercy towards other human beings.- They condemn Sufism, which is the method and science by which Muslims aspire to purify their hearts and characters from any illness and vice and achieve excellence (ihsan) in their inward and outward practice of their religion.Therefore, by rejecting Sufism they have rejected the science of self-purification and improvement of the character. That is the reason why the people normally attracted to this sect are former criminals who find very comfortable the fact of not having to improve their character and behaviour, since they just limit themselves to justify religiously their own baseness and crimes.

As for following a madhhab or not, some salafis follow a madhhab, specially those who live in a country that officially stick to a madhhab, but it is very much spread among them the ideology of not being necessary to do taqlid of a specific school.

There are some salafis who are happy with their doctrine and do not go around saying how misguided are those who do not agree with them. Those are few though. And this because their doctrine is based on declaring others misguided.

Their misguidance ranges from simple departure from the position of Ahlussunna wal Jama'a, to hostility to Ahlussuna Waljama'a's teachings, to use of deadly force to impose their ideology.

In other words, you have the normal salafi that you see in the mosque every day or jumu'a and that you may greet and talk to, then the wahhaby that gives you a bad look if he knows you are and ash'ari or a sufi and is active in spreading his minhaj, to the ones who are looking to get military training in order to "fight kufr." All share the same basic doctrine, but act differently.

The important element is to understand that every terrorist IS a salafi/wahabi b

ut not every salafi/wahabi is a terrorist.

Wahabism ia a necessary ingredient to get a terrorist, but is not enough. You need military training, a criminal record, a some other ingredients more and then you get a guy who is able to slaughter a person in the street in the middle of the day or enter a mosque and blow himself up whilst a sheyjh is teaching the people the Deen.

Lets not fool ourselves anymore: wahabism is a deconstruction of classical Islam design to enable extremist behavior.

And Allah knows best.