Source: crosswalk.com/ASSIST News Service
http://www.crosswalk.com/news/religiontoday/11574580/
The lower chamber of Kazakhstan's parliament has passed new legislation that would impose tough new restrictions on foreign missionary activity and evangelical churches.
Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia, northwest of China; a small portion west of the Ural River in eastern-most Europe.
According to a news release from the Slavic Gospel Association (SGA), Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev would have to approve the legislation before it becomes law.
The news release stated that according to Rev. Franz Tissen, president of the Kazakh Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, the bill contains a number of troubling provisions.
It would establish quotas of missionaries allowed in Kazakhstan. It would also forbid unregistered missionary activity by foreign workers who are not representatives of religious organizations.
Tissen said the bill would also prohibit distribution of religious material and informational material with religious content to citizens in public places and in private homes, unless the person receiving the literature initiates the contact and agrees to receive the literature.