Kyrgyzstan May Put New Restrictions on the Church

The head of the Government Commission for Religious Affairs of Kyrgyzstan, Orozbek Moldaliev, stated on February 3rd that there are plans to make needed changes to Kyrgyz legislation. One area in need of change is the legislation regulating the registration of religious organizations. “There are unregistered organizations. This all needs to be taken care of,” he said.

He also noted that after the fall of the Soviet Union there was a big growth in the number of Protestant and other “sects” in Kyrgyzstan, which spread, according to him, pseudo-Christian, pseudo-Orthodox religious ideas. “Many people were confused, they were longing for something spiritual, so these organizations took advantage of that,” he stated.

These intended changes to legislation and similar initiatives in the Central Asia Region will be one topic of our congressional briefing and press conference in Washington D.C. this week on religious freedom issues in the former Soviet Union. Tere have been threats for years now in Kyrgyzstan and neighboring Kazakhstan to tighten legislation, making it harder for religious organizations not belonging to the state-protected Orthodox Church or Islam, to operate. In many former Soviet republics changing rules for church registration have been used as a tool to make the lives of churches difficult, if not impossible.

The young Next Generation leaders in our School Without Walls program have been finding creative solutions to government restrictions for years, so we know that our work will continue no matter what changes are made to Kyrgyz legislation, just as it does in nearby Uzbekistan. However pray for the Kyrgyz parliament as they consider these new initiatives, and pray for Kyrgyz believers, that they would have courage and creativity as they worship and serve God, no matter what.

Source (in Russian): http://kg.akipress.org/news:591935