Seven Words and a Noose

This woman:

Nine years ago she was of no particular importance.  She was a field worker in Pakistan, poor and uneducated, with a husband, two daughters, three stepdaughters.  As common as dirt, except for one thing:

She knows Jesus.  Knows him well enough to speak up for him, and that’s why this woman is now of supreme importance.

Here’s how it started.  Back in 2009, she was at work as usual.  When she went to get water for all of them, her co-workers, all Muslim, objected when she took the first drink.  Didn’t she know she was second class?  Didn’t she know she had contaminated the water?  She was a Christian—a pariah.  One drop of her spit ruined the water for the rest of them.

Her reply, as reported: “Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world.  What has Mohammed ever done for you?”

Blasphemy.  In Pakistan, speaking against a Muslim can earn you a prison sentence.  But speaking against Mohammed gets you death.

Most blasphemy offenses in Pakistan see quick vigilante “justice.”  Last year a university student was lynched by his peers.  Another culprit, a Christian business owner, was on death row for two years before a surprise acquittal.  But this woman, Asia Bibi (otherwise known by her maiden name, Aasayia Noreen) has lingered in prison for nine years, two appeals, and most recently a sentencing hearing.  Any day now the final decision is supposed to come down: acquittal, or execution.

Allowing the case to linger has pumped up the passion.  Two men, so far, have been murdered for speaking up for her: Salmaan Taseer, governor of Punjab, was shot by one of his own bodyguards in 2011.  The guard was subsequently executed—you can’t just shoot down government officials with impunity—but has become a folk hero.  That same year, Shahbaz Bhatti, the Christian minister of Minority Affairs, was assassinated in an ambush.

If the sentence is carried out, Asia will be the only woman to be executed for blasphemy in Pakistan.  (Presumably other women have been murdered on the same charge, but not officially.)  The case is a matter of international interest, with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and several Christian groups joining the outcry against blasphemy laws.  The U.N. is harder to pin down, with their nonbinding resolutions and endless debates, but seems more adamant against defaming religion than keen to defend human conscience.  From our perspective, I t looks like a lose-lose: if Asia hangs for seven words about Mohammed—which she may not even have said—it’s a tragedy.  If she’s freed, it’s a blowup.

The judge’s response to the sentencing appeal is expected any day.  In the meantime, mobs are gathering to shout down any move toward clemency.  Hang her! they scream. Hang her!

Hated by thousands, prayed for by millions, truly known by only One.

I look forward to meeting her one day, in His presence, whether she leaps there from the noose or comes by a more orderly, quiet way.

What matters is that she knows Him, and more importantly, He knows her.