15 July,2011 07:54 AM IST | | Agencies
Pasta strainers are now considered suitable religious headgear in Austria... at least as far as the transport authorities are concerned.
Three years after applying for a new driver's licence, an Austrian man has finally received the laminated card - in which he is pictured with an upturned sieve on his head.
Niko Alm was allowed to wear the unusual headgear as it is deemed a suitable accessory for his 'Pastafarian' religion, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Alm, an entrepreneur, said he had the idea when he read that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for 'confessional' reasons.
The atheist says he belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a light-hearted faith whose members call themselves Pastafarians and whose 'only dogma is the rejection of dogma', according to its website.
Alm sent his application for a new driver's licence in 2008 along with a picture of himself with a colander on his head.
The stunt got him an invitation to the doctor's to check he was mentally fit to drive, but after three years, Alm's efforts have finally paid off.
He now wants to apply for Pastafarianism to become an officially recognised faith in Austria.
