What is the ruling on excommunicating Sunni scholars like Ibn Taymiyyah?

This hadith (definition) warns against excommunicating Muslims in general, and that the matter becomes more serious if the excommunication is directed at Muslim scholars, who are the carriers of the religion and the inheritors of the prophets. Whoever excommunicates the scholars of Sunnah (definition) is feared to be at risk of leaving the faith and having a bad end, for the flesh of scholars is poisoned, and Allah's custom of exposing the shortcomings of those who disparage them is well-known.