Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan - Kyrgyz deputies passed legislation Thursday to strengthen government control over religious groups, a move critics have attacked as a breach of international human rights standards.
Proselytism would be strongly curtailed in the impoverished, mostly Muslim Central Asian nation under the bill, which President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is expected to sign into law. Faith organizations will be obliged to disclose financial information to the authorities.
The law includes a ban on private religious teaching at all levels of education — outlawing private religious schools — while providing for the inclusion of religious education in public schools, said Zainidin Kurmanov, one of the lawmakers who proposed the bill.
The dissemination of religious literature in public places will also be prohibited, he said.
The measures are seen as a government attempt to quell concern about the influence of foreign Christian evangelical groups and fear of radical Islamic organizations.
Religious-freedom advocacy groups said the measures would violate Kyrgyz commitments on protecting human rights.
"Many provisions of this law flatly contradict international human rights standards that the government has freely signed up to," said Felix Corley, editor of Norway-based Forum 18.
European Parliament members last week signed a joint declaration with their Kyrgyz counterparts that stressed the need to respect freedom of conscience in spite of the increased risk of religious extremism.
The U.S. State Department said in a recent report that Kyrgyzstan has generally respected religious freedom, but that the government has harassed and refused to register some Christian churches.
Dustin Bickel, an adviser on economic and political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan, recently said the law could backfire, reducing government control by forcing smaller religious organizations to go underground.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a group that advocates a worldwide Islamic state, has flourished in spite of legal restrictions. Banned in Kyrgyzstan, it retains a substantial following among ethnic Uzbeks in the rural south.
Supporters of the legislation say it will simplify oversight of religious groups and minimize religious tension.
Kanybek Osmonaliyev, head of the State Agency for Religious Affairs, said the law is meant "to enforce respect for human freedoms and maintain the preservation of peace and tranquility."
Kyrgyzstan has long been considered the most democratic ex-Soviet republic in Central Asia, but the government has come under growing criticism for backtracking on political freedoms since Bakiyev came to power in 2005.