Austrian driver's religious headgear strains credulity

An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as "religious headgear".


Having received his driving licence, Niko Alm now wants to get pastafarianism officially recognised


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.

The Austrian authorities required him to obtain a doctor's certificate that he was "psychologically fit" to drive.

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 faith whose members call themselves pastafarians.

More at the link : :rofl:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14135523

Love it.

It is about time the only true religion got proper recondition.

Pastafarians, please.

The Big Noodle.

:applause:

http://derstandard.at/1310511140592/Fuehrerschein-Nudelsieb-doch-nicht-aus-religioesen-Gruenden-genehmigt

Colander, but not approved for religious reasons
... there is no such religious exemption for driver's license pictures, reports religion.orf.at, citing Manfred Reinthaler, spokesman for the Vienna Police Department. "The photo was not approved for religious reasons. In license photographs, the only criterion is that the whole face must be recognizable" ... So Niko Alm's statement, that his colander had been accepted by the authority as a religious head covering, was false. The colander was only approved because no part of Alm's face was obscured ...

hattip: FranzlLang, commenting at Pharyngula