The Shaykh’s response to those who claimed that if the Prophet had been alive, he would have worn a necktie and Western clothing.

The Shaykh : I believe that the one who claims and asserts this abandoned Sunnah is himself, or someone like him, from the same land, the land of Algeria, which is currently afflicted with what you are aware of. He or someone like him in that land imagines that if the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) were in our time, he would wear the necktie and the trousers, meaning to imitate the disbelievers. They consider our call to be the call of the Messenger (peace be upon him): And when we mention many, and very many, hadiths with this meaning, they consider these matters to be superficial things that it is not permissible to occupy oneself with, meaning it is not recommended, and it is not permissible to occupy oneself with them. Then they derive from this such dangerous ideas: they imagine that if the Messenger of Allah were among them, he would wear French clothing, and they complete this by wearing the knot that has absolutely no benefit other than realizing the imitation of the disbelievers. We know that wearing trousers covers the awrah, for example, even if they are tight. Wearing a jacket also has a benefit in repelling heat and cold and the like. As for this knot, what is the benefit of it other than imitating the clothing of the disbelieving French? If he said that the Messenger permitted wearing a jacket, hmm, perhaps. He would have permitted it.
Questioner: ...

The Shaykh : A cloak, ah, if he said so. As for the knots, these are the limit of the knots for these people. In truth, what indicates their distance from the Sunnah, a very, very great distance, is that there is no salvation for the Muslims from their painful reality today except through purification and education: that we know what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon, from creed to conduct. This encompasses what is obligatory, what is recommended, and what is permissible. Without this, there is absolutely no salvation for the Muslims, no matter how much they shout and no matter how much they spill their cheap blood; they will not benefit from it in any way.