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Sikhs also wear “magic underwear” (Kachhera), much like devout Mormons, and for much the same reason. Doubt anybody is going to be making fun of them for it, though.

No, it is not magical. My company's India office has many Sikhs and I am very familiar with their "rules"

The sikhs have an order called the "Khalsa". This is the highest a Sikh can aspire to be. Traditionally "Sikh" and "Khalsa" are used interchangeably but they are not the same.

Khalsas are held to the strict standard of carrying a sword and wearing a turban and also three other rules: namely, wearing underwear, having a comb and wearing a steel bracelet.

The reason for those things is purely military. As the Khalsa order was fighting the Muslims, the last Sikh guru wanted to instill discipline in the order by making them have a "uniform". By asking all Khalsas to wear Turbans and have long beards, he made them recognizable for the order that they were. In addition he imposed "cleanliness" rules that asked men to wash daily, comb and maintain their hair and wear clean clothes.

Thus the "underwear" rule. It enforces cleanliness and bathing in a continent and age (17th century) where people had neither. Khalsas will bathe (especially in the countryside) at freaking 5 AM in the morning with ice cold HImalayan water. It is unbelievable to watch. Many of their historic churches (gurdwaras) also have communal bathing areas. Everytime you visit their churches in Punjab, you have to wash your feet and hands. Lots of washing going on :)

So, no "Magic Undewear". Just has to be underwear and clean, even if it is Fruit of the Loom and you should have bathed before you put it on.

You are quite correct. I should have mentioned that the requirement for carrying a sword is limited to “baptized” Sikhs, the Khalsa. I have no clue what percentage of Sikhs are Khalsa. The Khalsa, however, are far and away dominant when people think of Sikhs.

My reference to magic underwear was a joke referencing the present idiotic hysteria over very similar requirements for devout Mormons. It was intended to point out the hypocrisy of liberals who would never dream of criticizing little brown brother Sikhs for wearing what is essentially the same thing.

There actually are specific requirements, technically, for the underwear. They look a lot like what we would call gym shorts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kachchhera

While Sikhs in the West may interpret this as requiring any clean underwear, the actual Sikh doctrine is pretty clear. I believe the idea of the drawstring is to give the person a specific point at which he is reminded of his obligations to maintain sexual purity. Which actually makes a good deal of sense.