Pakistan, March 27 -- In a sweltering courtroom this month, justice itself seemed to wither away. Four men stood bound as the judge pronounced their sentence: death by hanging. Their crime? A single Facebook post. A few keystrokes, a fleeting moment of digital dissent, and their lives were forfeit. Their lawyer, Manzoor Rahmani, decried the verdict as "judicial surrender to the mob." But surrender is too mild a word. It smacks of collusion between a court too frightened of mob reprisals and a system that thrives on terror.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws are increasingly being treated as public lynchings masquerading in judicial robes. Enshrined in Sections 295-B and 295-C of our Pakistan Penal Code, these provisions were forged in the fire of...