Our annual Jan. 16 celebration of Religious Freedom Day, commemorating the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom 233 years ago, reminds us of the roots of cultural acceptance necessary for religious freedom to truly flourish in any society. While modeled in the formation of the U.S., religious freedom is not exclusively an American idea, but a human right for all people. Halfway around the world, the saga of Asia Bibi’s blasphemy case in Pakistan is not yet over, but it is already highlighting the cultural deficit of religious freedom in that country for the world to see. More unexpectedly, this case is exposing the religious freedom rot in other nations through their inability to respond effectively to the crisis.

Asia Bibi is a Pakistani Christian woman who spent nearly 10 years under a death sentence for alleged “blasphemy” following a dispute with Muslim coworkers, before the Pakistan Supreme Court reversed her conviction (a reversal which was based on a lack of evidence, not a repudiation of the country’s blasphemy laws). Perhaps no other religious freedom case galvanized as much attention in Pakistan in recent years.