Strathclyde Police Diversity Team Names 'Jedi' as Religion

"If you should strike me down now, I will be more powerful than you can possibly imagine." The late, great, Sir Alec Guinness plays Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Knight in Star Wars - a kind of Zarathrustian Padre Pio-esque proto-martyr.

Strathclyde Police have named 'Jedi' as a religion on their voluntary diversity forms.

The Telegraph reports that, 'A Strathclyde Police spokeswoman said: "At the time of the request, 10 (eight police officers and two police staff) had recorded their religion as Jedi."

The force said the information was provided voluntarily and securely stored. In the 2001 Census for England and Wales around 390,000 people stated Jedi was their religion. Prior to the census, an e-mail was circulated stating that if 10,000 people put Jedi on the census form, it would become a "fully recognised and legal religion".'

So, now an entirely fictional theme from a George Lucas film is recognised as a religion. So, if you get into an argument in a bar with a man dressed up in costume, you can't call the police when his best mate chops your arm off with a light sabre, just because you said to his friend, "I don't like you," then pointing to another guy in the bar and saying, "he doesn't like you either," because the police will only say that the Jedi concerned was 'practising his religion'.