@Gharib
I've read about the history of muhammed ibn abdulwahab and he didn't rebel against the ottoman empire . If you read the work of ibn abdulwahab you will see that he believed that listening and obeying the imams (leaders) was waijb
He mentions this in a letter to the people of al qaseem you can look it up in majmoo'aat al mo'allafaat al shaykh 5/11
When you read about the history of najd during the ottoman empire you will see that najd never came under Ottoman rule. Because the rule of ottoman state never reached that far no ottoman governer was appointed over that region and the ottoman soldiers never marched in that region during the period that preceded the emergence of the call of ibn abdulwahab.
The ottoman state was divided into 23 provinces .. 14 were arabic provinces and najd wasnt one of them.
You can look this up in a document called ' Qawaneen aal uthmaan mudaameen daftar al deewaan' written by yameen ali efendi.
Najd consisted of small emirates and each town or village was ruled by an emir. Between these emirates there was a lot of war,disputes so muhammad ibn abdulwahaab didnt rebel against the ottoman empire but against the corrupt situation in his land.
Again I belief the claim that the british were helping in the war against the ottoman empire is incorrect. The movement of ibn abdulwahab started in 1811 and the khilafa was abolished in 1922. The british were against the movement of muhammad ibn abdulwahab and wanted to help Ibrahim Pesha against the wahabi movement. So why would they help muhammad ibn abdulwahab ?
In regards to the salafi scholars and the 4 madhaahib..
What they mean with 'do not follow blindly' is that one shouldnt say 'I only take from one particular madhab even if someone comes to me with clear proof that one of the other madhabs is correct in a certain issue. '
I've read the book by Bilal Philips and you're right he does mention that its not necessary to follow one particular madhab. With that he means you take the stronger opinion from the 4 madhaahib. All 4 imams were mujtahids meaning that they could be right in a matter or sometimes wrong and they will be rewarded for their ijtihaad.
Ahlul hadith doesnt mean they only take ahadith and reject the rest. They are called ahlul hadith because of their in depth knowledge of hadith.
Shaykh Albani never said that there are weak ahadith in sahih al bukhari.
The weak ahadith he was referring to were those in the book adab al mufrad written by imam al bukhari.
If you look at muslim countries and the different madhabs you see that majority people follow the madhab of their region it doesnt have to do with avoiding anything or 'hijacking' it. Where I'm originally from majority of the salafis follow the shafi'i madhab while salafis mauritania and morroco follow the maliki madhab and those in pakistan and india follow the hanafi madhab etc.
Allahu a'lam