An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as "religious headgear".
Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons. Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism.
Later a police spokesman explained that the licence was issued because Mr Alm's face was fully visible in the photo.
"The photo was not approved on religious grounds. The only criterion for photos in driving licence applications is that the whole face must be visible," said Manfred Reinthaler, a police spokesman in Vienna.
He was speaking on Wednesday, after Austrian media had first reported Mr Alm's reason for wearing the pasta strainer.
After receiving his application the Austrian authorities had required him to obtain a doctor's certificate that he was "psychologically fit" to drive.
According to Mr Reinthaler, "the licence has been ready since October 2009 - it was not collected, that's all there is to it".
The idea came into Mr Alm's noodle three years ago as a way of making a serious, if ironic, point.
A self-confessed atheist, Mr Alm says he belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a light-hearted, US-based faith whose members call themselves pastafarians.
A medical interview established the self-styled "pastafarian" was mentally fit to drive In response to pressure for American schools to teach the theory known as intelligent design, which some Christians favour as an alternative to natural selection, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster wrote to the Kansas School Board asking for the pastafarian version of intelligent design to be taught to schoolchildren.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14135523
Vad säger ni? Pastafarianer med sin church of the flying spaghetti monster bör väl ändå ha samma rätt att existera som andra religioner?
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