THE HAGUE, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Dutch Council of State has confirmed that Pastafarianism, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, is not a religion, responding to a follower who tried to wear a colander on her head in her passport and driver's license photo.
"I can imagine that it all looks very odd if you don't believe," said Mienke de Wilde, the follower of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
"But that's the case with many faiths if you don't believe in them -- people who walk on water or divide themselves in two, for example. I find other religions unbelievable," she told local newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.
The Dutch Council of State rejected de Wilde's request, saying that "Pastafarianism has no obligations or restrictions. De Wilde has said she wears her colander because she sees it as duty but it is an individual choice."
"It is important to be able to criticize religious dogma freely through satire but that does not make such criticism a serious religion," the council said in a statement.
Founded in the United States in 2005 by Bobby Henderson as a satire of Christian fundamentalists, the church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster encourages believers to worship a god called "the Flying Spaghetti Monster" and wear colanders on their heads in homage to their deity.
The church has been controversial in many countries since it was founded, while several countries have allowed followers to wear colanders for their identity photographs.?
