other head-covering items were claimed to be in other religions, such as the hijab in Islam and the kippah/yarmulke in Judaism. Applicants and their attorneys retorted by arguing – also with mixed successes – that Pastafarianism did constitute a real religion, or that it was not up to the government to decide what qualifies as a religion, nor whether certain religious beliefs are valid or invalid, nor whether certain practices within religions had the status of obligation, established doctrine, recommendation, or personal choice. Moreover, some Pastafarians argued, satire and parody themselves are or could be a religious practice or an integral part of a religion such as Pastafarianism, and the government has no right to decide which beliefs should be taken seriously and which should not, and that it is only up to the individual believers themselves to decide which elements of their religion to take seriously, and to what degree. Europe On August 9, 2011 the chairman of the church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Germany, Rüdiger Weida, obtained a driver's license with a picture of him wearing a pirate bandana. In contrast with the reasons given by the Austrian officials in the case of Niko Alm, the German officials allowed the headgear as a religious exception. Some anti-clerical protesters wore colanders to Piazza XXIV Maggio square in Milan, Italy, on June 2, 2012, in mock obedience to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. In March 2013 a Belgian's identity photos were refused by the local and national administrations because he wore a pasta strainer on his head. The Czech Republic recognised Pastafarian religious headgear in 2013. In July that year, Lukáš Nový, a member of the Czech Pirate Party from Brno was given permission to wear a pasta strainer on his head for the photograph on his official Czech Republic ID card. A man's Irish driving licence photograph including a colander was rejected by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) in December 2013. In March 2016, an Equality Officer of the Workplace Relations Commission reviewed the RSA's decision under the Equal Rights Acts and upheld it, on the basis that the complaint did "not come within the definition of religion and/or religious belief". In January 2016 Russian Pastafarian Andrei Filin got a driver's license with his photo in a colander. In the Netherlands, Dirk Jan Dijkstra applied for a Dutch passport around 2015 using a colander on his identity photo, which