A mob misunderstood the word “sweetness” for a Quranic quote. The Muslim woman was saved by a Christian shopkeeper and the police but was compelled to apologize.
by Massimo Introvigne
![The terrorized woman escapes into a shop owned by a Christian, then is taken away by the police. From X.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/terrorized-woman.jpeg)
![The terrorized woman escapes into a shop owned by a Christian, then is taken away by the police. From X.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/terrorized-woman.jpeg)
It is easy to be accused of blasphemy and to be sentenced up to the death penalty in Pakistan, but an equally scary experience is to be confronted by an angry mob that wants to lynch you for reasons you may not immediately understand.
This is what happened on February 25 to a woman who had traveled to Dubai, where she had purchased a shirt decorated with the Arabic word “halawa.” The word means “sweetness” and is also used for a traditional Arabic dessert (called “halva” through the Middle East and transliterated as such in English). It may also indicate the manna and as such is mentioned in the Holy Quran (Al-Baqara:57) as is in the Bible, to indicate the nourishment that God miraculously provided to Moses and his people. But the uses of “halawa” are multiple in Arabic and somebody who speaks Arabic who encounters the word would not immediately refer it to the manna or to a Quranic quote.
Not so in Pakistan. The lady who had purchased the shirt in Dubai went to the Ichra Bazar in Lahore and was quietly shopping when she was confronted by a man called Hafiz Muhammad Nadeem, who started shouting that she was insulting Islam by putting on her body a shirt with “words from the Holy Quran.” Videos shared on X shows a mob quickly gathering, including Islamic clerics, with some shouting that the woman should be immediately killed or “beheaded.”
A brave Christian shopkeeper allowed her to enter the shop, locked the door, and called the police. As the mob tried to break in, the officers arrived, and a policewoman was able to calm down the protesters by taking the alleged blasphemer to the local police station.
![The woman is compelled to apologize. From X.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/woman-is-compelled-.jpeg)
![The woman is compelled to apologize. From X.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/woman-is-compelled-.jpeg)
There, rather than receiving an apology, she was told that “she” should apologize in front of Muslim clerics, which she did, and promise she will never ever again wear the shirt—that was on sale in Dubai, in a Muslim and Arabic-speaking country, without anybody objecting.
A misunderstanding, perhaps. But the images show that in Pakistan you may easily die for a misunderstanding.