© AP Photo/Niko Alm, hoAn undated photo provided by Niko Alm on Thursday, July 14, 2011, showing his driving license photo. It has to be strangest piece of identification in Austria - if not the world.
So the tongue-in-cheek atheist applied for a new driver's license in his country with a photo of himself wearing a pasta strainer as headgear. Alm said he was a "pastafarian" and that the headpiece was required by his religion.
The application process took three years, but Alm said Thursday that he's now got his new license.
Police officials in the mostly Catholic country did not sound amused.
They said religion was never an issue in Alm's case, and that he succeeded because he fulfilled the only criterion required: leaving his face fully visible in the photo. Alm's new drivers license shows him wearing a pasta strainer as headgear. A tongue-in cheek atheist, Alm submitted the photo as part of applying for a new license to test an Austrian law stipulating that head coverings were allowed in official documents only for religious reasons. Alm said he was a 'pastafarian,' and the headpiece was required for his religion. Alm said that it took three years to have the licensee issued. Police officials say religion was never an issue. They say the photo fulfills the criterion of leaving Alm's face fully recognizable.
To remind you of when to renew your driver license, be sure to mark it on your colander.