A Republican lawmaker in the Georgia state legislature is proposing a controversial law that would ban Muslim women from wearing religious head garb while driving.

Jason Spencer, a Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives, submitted the bill which would make an old anti-masking statute that was originally aimed at the Ku Klux Klan applicable to Muslim women, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The proposed legislation has ignited opposition from both Democrats and Republicans who fear that the bill's intent is to curb religious freedom.

The bill was ostensibly submitted to require Muslim women to remove veils and burqas while posing for driver's license photos.

Critics point out that Georgia authorities already have restrictions on the books that require would-be drivers to reveal their faces in photos for licenses

Georgia State Representative Jason Spencer (above) is proposing legislation that seeks to bar Muslim women from wearing burqas and veils while driving

Civil liberties advocates say that the true aim of the legislation is to bar Muslim women from wearing head coverings while driving.

The vague wording of the legislation could also be interpreted as requiring Muslim women to uncover their faces while out in public.

'I don't see the need for a law that specifically targets Muslim women,' Aisha Yaqoob, a member of the Georgia Muslim Voter Project, told Atlanta's Channel 2.

'It's frustrating. I was hoping not to have an issue like this come up so soon.'

The language of the proposed legislation is meant to apply 'anti-masking' laws originally enacted against the KKK to Muslim women.

The original statute only referred to males, while the revised bill offered up by Spencer reads: 'A person is guilty of a misdemeanor when he or she wears a mask, hood, or device by which any portion of the face is so hidden, concealed or covered as the conceal the identity of the wearer and is upon any public way or public property or upon the private property of another without the written permission of the owner or occupier of the property to do so.'

'For the purposes of this subsection, the phrase "upon any public way or property" includes but is not limited to operating a motor vehicle upon any public street, road, or highway.'

Georgia state lawmakers like Republican Josh McKoon (left) and Democrat Stacey Abrams (right) are opposed to the bill

Spencer denied that the bill seeks to ban all Muslim women from wearing burqas in public.

He told Channel 2 that his proposal 'is simply a response to constituents that do have concerns of the rise of Islamic terrorism, and we in the state of Georgia do not want our laws used against us and to take advantage of us.'

Spencer also said that banning face coverings is a public safety issue since it can obstruct the view for drivers while they are behind the wheel.

The ban would also make it easier for law enforcement to more easily identify drivers.

One of Spencer's Republican colleagues in the House, Josh McKoon, said he is opposed to the bill on the grounds that it curbs religious freedoms.

'Passing laws that clearly abrogate the free exercise rights of fellow Georgians will do nothing but create additional fear and division,' McKoon wrote on his Facebook page.

McKoon said that while he understands the requirement for those applying for a driver's license to reveal their faces, 'we should not give in to a fear of religious traditions that some may not value or understand - after all we live in a country founded on the idea that all of us are entitled to the right of free exercise, not just those government deems worthy.'

Civil liberties advocates say that the bill is discriminatory since it targets Muslim women. Muslim women are seen wearing burqas in London (stock photo)

One Democratic legislator was more forceful in her opposition, calling the bill 'bigoted.'

The proposed law is 'a direct result of the rhetoric we heard during Donald Trump's Islamaphobic presidential campaign,' House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams told the Journal-Constitution.

During his successful run for president, Trump called for a ban on Muslim immigration to the United States as well as greater scrutiny of Muslims by law enforcement.

A top representative of local Muslims says that the bill would have little practical effect since few Muslim women in the state wear the traditional head garb.

'Very few Georgia Muslim women wear face veils,' the head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' office in Georgia, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, told Channel 2, 'but those who do have a constitutional right to do so.'