Hijacked Religion Poem by Mohammad Younus

Outside the gates of our local Masjid, on Fridays...
I find some women sitting, asking for alms,
Women, cruelly oppressed by poverty and deprivation!
Not pestering as other street beggars do,
Just they spread a begging sheet on the floor...
And give blessings to the devotees...
Going in and coming out of the Masjid...
After saying their Salah - prayers - inside;
I saw these unblessed women hearing the sermon,
But they are perhaps denied or not invited...
...to get into the Masjid,
Is your Masjid only for males?
Where shall these poor women go...
To ask their God just for a piece of bread?
I read in the looks of these deprived women...
...only anguish,
And bitter tears, eyes red with pain,
Even the better off women...
...I do not find praying in the local Masjids,
What is the reason?
They are more than half our population!
The devotees, and even the priest...
...leading the prayers ignobly ignore them...
...while walking by...
...as if they are lifeless cold stones;
So I usually pray at my own home
In company with my wife, and my daughters...
Who - with bitter feelings - pine and fervor,
To pray in the Masjid as did the blessed women...
...in Prophet's times do,
Thus - applying my best senses -
I assure the women at my home...
That you are not victimized or marginalised forever!
It is your right to go to the Masjids!
Masjids are never never exclusive for men!
I don't follow that hijacked religion.

MyKoul