Whereas, in June 2009, Asia Bibi allegedly insulted the Muslim faith during a confrontation with Muslim neighbors and drank from a water source shared by these Muslim neighbors; Whereas, in November 2010, Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman, was sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted of blasphemy by a Pakistani District Court under Article 295–C of Pakistan’s penal code; Whereas, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws set severe punishments, including death or life in prison, and have been levied against religious minorities, including Christians, Hindus, and Ahmadiyya and Shi’a Muslims, as well as Sunni Muslims; Whereas a petition calling for the immediate release of Asia Bibi has generated over 690,000 signatures, and 250,000 of the signatures, roughly a third of the total amount, were made by petitioners from the United States; Whereas, in January 2011, Pakistani politician Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, who campaigned for Asia Bibi’s release and called for reform to Pakistan’s blasphemy codes, outraged religious conservatives and was assassinated by his security guard, Mumtaz Qadri; Whereas, in March 2011, Federal Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated in Islamabad, Pakistan, after receiving death threats for his support of reforming Pakistan’s blasphemy codes and calling for the release of Asia Bibi; Whereas, in October 2014, the Lahore High Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence of Asia Bibi; Whereas the execution of Mumtaz Qadri in February 2016 resulted in street protests that called for the death of Asia Bibi; Whereas, in Pakistan, mere accusations of blasphemy, even by private individuals, often lead to violence against those accused by private actors