Georgia with its devoutly Orthodox Christian set of communities, is proposing a ‘blasphemy bill’ that will make religious caricaturing and comedic lampooning of faith, punishable in law.

The bill, which has been approved at committee stage, has led to critics suggesting that it will cause a chilling effect on those critics of the official church line and more importantly, on dissent regarding religion. Some have suggested that even theatre, art and plays which explored faith could fall of the blasphemy bill.

The proposed bill attaches fines to those who target “insults to religious feelings” with a 100 lari fine ($120) attached to any comment deemed to fall foul of the law. This would double if there was a repeat of the incident and desecration of a religious icon would lead to a fine of 1000 laris. Given that the average salary in the country is about 800 laris, the new bill seems to hit those in the pocket willing to take a dissenting line to faith and belief.

This bill comes on the back of opposition to the opening of mosques and madrassas in the west of Georgia where groups have been active in lobbying against Muslim institutions.

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