[GEAntonio]

Shawkani was anti-Taqleed, anti-Madhab, and pro-Ijtihad, so obviously his opinion leans towards greater allowance of Ijtihad.

Honestly, if that is all that's required for Ijtihad, then there are multiple people here on this forum who are capable of it, and it would only take a few years of study to reach the level of Ijtihad. Certainly less than the 8-10 years that the Dars Nizami course requires before a person can be called a Mufti, which is funny when you think about how Salafis accuse Deobandis of throwing around labels like Aalim and Mufti too freely.

there are very few people in the world whom salafis consider muftis and mujtahids. Most salafis will state that there are no muftis or mujtahids in europe.

Your telling me that a few people on this forum have read through the entire 6 major collections of hadeeth with an alim and are familiar enough with it to pull out hadeeths related to a mas'ala? Please tell me who because mashallah if they completed that in less than 8 years plus learning science of hadeeth plus learning arabic language, thats some serious ilm they managed to acquire in less than 8 years

ijma alone is something that could be studied for over a year