LONDON - Thousands of Britons devoted to the ``Star Wars'' films have claimed the fictional faith Jedi as their religion and forced it onto the next national census, newspapers reported on Thursday.
An e-mail campaign convinced more than 10,000 fans of the enduring science-fiction films to list Jedi -- known by the mantra ``May the Force be with you'' -- as their religion on Britain's 2001 census, the Daily Express reported.
It was enough for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to give Jedi its own code, meaning it will appear in the 2002 census.
``When the forms are processed, all data is encoded and we have given Jedi Knight a code because a large group of people have entered it on their forms,'' an ONS spokesman told the Daily Express.
``But we are not saying that this is an official religion,'' the spokesman added.
In the ``Star Wars'' films, the Jedi Knights are a noble order of protectors unified by their belief in and ability to tap into a universal power called ``the Force.''