Forum 18 reported yesterday that Kyrgyzstan's Parliament last week passed without discussion the first reading of a new Religion Law. The second and final reading may be later this month. News Agency 24.kg reported yesterday that Alexander Shumilin chairman of Kyrgyzstan's Council of Churches of Evangelical Baptist Christians, has strongly criticized the proposed new law. He says that because only 5% of current religious organizations will meet the requirement that they have at least 200 adult members with permanent residence in order to register, many groups will go into hiding and this will make it more difficult for the government to control them.
The proposed law will also ban the free distribution of religious literature. Parliamentary Deputy Zainidin Kurmanov, one of the law's authors, said: "It is very unpleasant when you are on the street when someone comes up to you and forces on you their ideas on their religion." He also said that extremist literature is being distributed as religious tracts.
