RT Abdullah's letter Non-halal: Obscurantist Islam at work refers. He said:

Islam during Prophet Muhammad's time was far more progressive than what is taught in our reactionary religious schools today. Likewise with Islam during the time of the four Rashidun (Righteous) Caliphs Abu Bakar, Omar, Osman and Ali.

Islam Hadhari is the Islam of the Prophet, and of the Caliphs Abu Bakar, Omar, Osman and Ali.

It is also the Islam of the two great collectors of Hadith (Traditions) namely Bukhari and Muslim, whose Hadith can be considered most authentic and reliable (but mind you, these two great men never considered their stacks of Hadith to be final when they died).

The Quran is the pure and uncorrupted word of God and it contains everything that we need to know. Islam Hadhari is 100 percent derived from following the Quran and the spirit of Islam during the Prophet's time.

The essence of Islam Hadhari is reading the Quran of Muhammad properly, humanely and progressively, and coming to proper, humane and progressive conclusions which challenge the de-humanising habits of our own times.

Islam Hadhari is about reconciling the Quran of text (the Quran of Muhammad) with the Quran of life (the universe or Adamic Quran).

What went wrong with Islamdom (the Ummah) is, it declined slowly but surely after the death of Ali, the last Rashidun Caliph.

It is always stated in the Quran and Hadith that the generations after the Prophet and the Companions (Disciples) will be increasingly prone to Satan's influence if they do not purify their hearts and souls with the remembrance of God.

Remembrance of God can be done in many forms, such as meditation, learning simple rules of universal human values expounded in the Quran, and espousing the non-violence of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the Muslim Gandhi of Afghanistan - whose inspiration was 100 percent from the Quran - did in his 90-odd years.

Our Islamic teachers were brainwashed by the Wahhabi movement with hateful and fascistic Islamic interpretations. The Middle Eastern Wahhabis have spread their ideas around the world via students who studied there and who later returned to teach religion in their respective countries.

As a result today, Wahhabism has held Islamdom hostage. About 90 per cent of Islamdom, I dare say, is Wahhabi influenced.

Progressives who follow Islam Hadhari are a minority, and our Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is the leading proponent amongst world leaders now.

Islam Hadhari's modern-day ulama were:

• Syed Jamaluddin Al-Afghani, another Gandhi-like figure from Afghanistan;
• his student Muhammad Abduh, the former mufti of Egypt;
• Syed Rashid Rida, the founder of the Islamic reformist Egyptian journal Al-Manar;
• Shakib Arslan, the Lebanese who helped Jews flee Germany;
• Islamic Brotherhood's progressive first president Hassan Al-Banna (the Brotherhood became Wahhabi after he was killed by King Farouk of Egypt);
• Jewish-turned-Muslim Quranic translator Leopold Weiss alias Muhammad Asad;
• British Muslim Quranic translator Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall;
• Sir Syed Ahmad Khan of India;
• Sir Muhammad Iqbal of India;
• Ali Shariati of Iran, the intellectual who was murdered by Shah Reza Pahlavi;
• Muhammad Ali Jinnah, first president of Pakistan;
• Hamka of Indonesia;
• PAS founder Burhanuddin Helmi;
• Our PM's own grandfather, Abdullah Fahim of Pendang, Kedah.

We Muslims have to be born again under Islam Hadhari. We have no right to call ourselves Muslims today. We have been led astray by our teachers who are mostly Wahhabis.

I do not think it is wrong at all to close down all our religious departments, religious courts, and even religious schools temporarily and re-start them with Islam Hadhari.

All Muslim religious teachers should be sent back to school, lest they lead Islamdom astray, on the path of hate and destruction which is 100 percent contrary to Islam.

The same goes to all politicians who use religion to preach hate against fellow Muslims and non-Muslims. They who do so should be barred from politics for years, and their parties should be shut down.

If one is Muslim, one should be loving and compassionate, like Omar Al-Khattab who refused to give Muslims the control of the Church of Jerusalem and who also Jews, Christians and Hindus total religious freedom under his leadership of the Caliphate.

Having spelt out Islam Hadhari, I would like to add a disclaimer. If you are a 'liberal' Muslim and love to wear (if you are a she) and promote (if you are a he) mini skirts, an Islam Hadhari proponent you are not.

Mini skirts, the ultimate symbol of Westernisation, are out of bounds in Islam (though non-Muslims should be free to wear them).

They are in reality a misogynist garment invented by the male chauvinistic British cultural colonialists of modern times, to lower the worth of women.

You are also guilty of being a 'liberal Muslim fundamentalist' outside Islam Hadhari if you recognise Israel's existence (not that you should be violent like Hamas, but that you should oppose Israel non-violently like Mubarak Awad, Ralph Nader, and the late Edward W Said).

And finally, if you uphold single-party dictatorship and jail your critics without the right to trial, like our former prime minister, so to are you outside Islam Hadhari.