THE HAGUE, Netherlands – A Dutch court has upheld a mayor’s refusal to issue a driver’s license to a man who submitted a photo of himself wearing a colander on his head.
According to a court statement Wednesday, the man wanted the photo on his license as an expression of his Pastafarian faith.
Pastafarians belong to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a parody group that began in the U.S. in 2005 protesting religion encroaching into the nation’s public schools.
The mayor of the Dutch city of Eindhoven last year rejected the man’s request, in part because he ruled that the group couldn’t be considered a genuine religion. Religious headdresses are allowed on Dutch passport photos.
The court agreed, saying that Pastafarian faith “did not show sufficient seriousness to be considered a religion.”