Is the Hanbali school lenient in declaring others to be disbelievers (takfir), and did its leading figures declare Abu Hanifa to be a disbeliever, and is this leniency present among scholars such as the Council of Senior Scholars in Saudi Arabia?

The claims attributed to the Hanbali school of thought regarding Abu Hanifa are pure fabrication. Sheikh Salih Al Al-Sheikh has refuted the accusation that Abu Hanifa believed in the createdness of the Quran, an accusation found in the book Al-Sunnah by Abdullah ibn Imam Ahmad. He clarified that these statements were transmitted during the period of the fitna concerning the createdness of the Quran, and that Abu Hanifa is innocent of them. He further explained that scholars later unanimously agreed to speak of Imam Abu Hanifa only in good terms. Sheikh Abdullah ibn Hassan Al Al-Sheikh removed the section related to this accusation from the printed edition of Kitab Al-Sunnah as a realization of jurisprudential wisdom, and this was supported by Sheikh Salih Al-Fawzan. Sheikh Al Al-Sheikh condemned impugning Abu Hanifa, affirming that the methodology of theaf and the scholars of the Da'wah is to mention scholars only with praise, and they acknowledge the status of the four Imams. It is recommended to read the رسالة (treatise) "Bara'at Ahl al-Sunnah min al-Waqi'a fi 'Ulama' al-Ummah" (The Innocence of the People of Sunnah from Disparaging the Scholars of the Ummah) by Allamah Bakr Abu Zayd to learn about the sources of these accusations and how to refute them.