[Sellorect]

I think their usage of the word Hanafi is in the literal meaning (as in monotheist) and not the common ('urfi) meaning, as in an adherent of the Hanafi mathhab. They seem to employ this lexical strategy to confuse the Hanafi laity. I presume not all Salafis recognise this and therefore criticise the Al Kauthar crew because of this. Their are also various strands within the Salafis and the criticism might be based on this. I know some Salafis who are particularly vocal in their critcism of the Al Kauthar and Al Maghrib lot.

not sure where your based, but in the UK (london specifically) there is a divide amongst the salafis where some people support things like al kauthar...and the salafis who are against them...they mostly dont support them because of yasir qadhi and their signing the unity pledge and also because of his pro-america views...they also have fiqhi differences with them such as yasir qadhis/ muhammad al shareefs stance on the beard etc

but from what i notice the salafis who are anti yasir qadhi are a little more educated in terms of what a madhab is wallahu alam...they mostly refer to themselves as hanbalis and don't really use the salafi label anymore...although they don't follow the traditional opinions in the hanbali madhab and follow most of the same shaykhs shaykh albani and co

and then we have the salafis who are very anti-madhab...they are also against these institutes because they seem to have 'hanafi' scholars and consider them misguided and following a madhab to be bidah

basically there is a lot of divide amongst salafis in the UK

To me it seemed like yasir qadhi etc changed when al-kauthar popped up...and they keep changing...and it seems like its all about attracting a wider audience...wallahu alam but the yasir qadhi back when al-kauthar was not around was veryy different and had he been the same al-kauthar would not be half as popular as it is today especially in the US...makes you ask yourself could this all just be business tactics