BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — In January, Kyrgyzstan’s president signed a new religion law that further represses faith communities by limiting their existence, worship and literature and prohibiting public witnessing.
The Amending Law in the Area of Religion, which continues the censoring or quashing of faith practices and replaces the 2008 religion law, took effect Feb. 1. The newer law increases penalties for violations, reports the rights group Forum 18.
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“The new religion law continues to ban all unregistered exercise of freedom of religion or belief and makes it impossible for communities with fewer than 500 adult citizen members to gain legal status (up from 200 in the current law),” states Forum 18.
Moreover, the law bans “sharing faith in public and from door to door,” the Forum 18 article continues.
‘More difficult’ to ‘practice our faith’
Jalolidin Nurbayev, a Zhogorku Kenesh (parliament) deputy who abstained from voting on the law, said he is against a ban on door-to-door witnessing because “there is nothing bad in that.”
In January, one Protestant told Forum 18, “The new law does not make anything better or easier for us to practice our faith but makes it more difficult.”
Kyrgyzstan is No. 47 on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of places most difficult to be a Christian.
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