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Pasta Sieve Religious Head Cover In Driver License
By Sascha Vongehr
Science 2.0 Blog (not the journal Science!)

http://www.science20.com/alpha_meme/pasta_sieve_religious_head_cover_driver_license-80805


Niko Alm has after a three year wait finally gotten permission to wear his religious head covering in his driver license photo - progress for religious freedom everywhere.

In Austria, a license or ID photo cannot show the person with her head covered, except if the person is religious, in which case law and order are not so important. Niko Alm, an entrepreneur and blogger, belongs to the holy church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which is the one and only true god, praise it and kill all infidels. Niko cannot possibly ascent to the one true Italian-mushroom sauce heaven if his driver license would show him naked. A pasta sieve must be worn.

It was three years ago in 2008 that Niko, wearing the respectful cover, brought his license application and photo personally to the Vienna authorities. This resulted in him being ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation in order to judge whether he is mentally stable enough to drive a car. We all should thank the authorities for this, as it renders traffic safer for all of us.


A devote one is blessed by the honorable high priest.

All people who insist on religious clothing should undergo such an evaluation and wait at least three years for their license approval. After all, most religions are irrational confusions only the somehow mentally challenged could possibly fall for – there is only one true Flying Spaghetti Monster, which is the one and only true god, praise it and kill all infidels!


A true god materializes to his followers from time to time, here to devour a plane.

Pastafarianism is a sect of the true interpretation of the true noodle faith, founded 2005 by the physicist Bobby Henderson. The sieve protects from harmful radiation, so tinfoil is not necessary.The whole long story telling of the fight for his right to wear the sieve, actually starting already 2007, can be found in all detail on Niko’s blog, however, it is in German.


The Standard is supposed to have something in English, but I could not find it yet.

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From a slightly more reputable source:

Austrian driver allowed 'pastafarian' headgear photo
BBC News

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

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.

The group's website states that "the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma".

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.

Straining credulity

In the same spirit, Mr Alm's pastafarian-style application for a driving licence was a response to the Austrian recognition of confessional headgear in official photographs.

The licence took three years to come through and, according to Mr Alm, he was asked to submit to a medical interview to check on his mental fitness to drive but - straining credulity - his efforts have finally paid off.

It is the police who issue driving licences in Austria, and they have duly issued a laminated card showing Mr Alm in his unorthodox item of religious headgear.

When asked for his reaction to Mr Reinthaler's comments, Mr Alm told the broadcaster ORF: "I didn't know I was guilty of not collecting it. That doesn't alter the fact that it still took nearly a year [to be issued]".

The next step, Mr Alm told the Austrian news agency APA, is to apply to the Austrian authorities for pastafarianism to become an officially recognised faith.

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:

The next step, Mr Alm told the Austrian news agency APA, is to apply to the Austrian authorities for pastafarianism to become an officially recognised faith.

That's easy, just get enough people to put it on their census forms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_census_phenomenon

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aye...