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The 2016 presidential race is narrowing, just as self-avowed outsiders Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have begun to surge.

In the New Hampshire Democratic and Republican primaries earlier this week, the overwhelming winners were Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democrats and billionaire Republican Donald Trump.

Both candidates’ ascension as political outsiders in a thick, moneyed election process signals a bi-partisan contention for status quo politics. But the messages of the two candidates who might be facing off in a general election could not be different.

Donald Trump has galvanized a xenophobic, racist Republican base that casts wide dispersions on people of color, the working class and religious minorities.

His rhetoric has been consistently divisive, and his so far successful tactic includes fear-mongering and baseless hatred. At a campaign rally in December, Mr. Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States.

"Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life,” Trump added.

Apart from the obviously problematic sentiment that unconditionally casts billions of Muslims worldwide as dangerous; removed from the technical impossibility, moral repulsiveness and violation of Constitutional rights of Muslims that Mr. Trump is advocating, New Hampshire Republican primary voters seem to be in agreement with him.

Exit polls show two-thirds of Republican voters—the same voters who secured a win for Trump—support the call to ban Muslims from the United States. In addition, ABC News reports that four in 10 voters agree that undocumented immigrants should be indiscriminately deported.

Mr. Trump has tapped into some of the most vile and ignorant opinions of voters, and it just might win him the Republican nomination.

Contrast that to Bernie Sanders, self-avowed Democratic Socialist (different from a Socialist socialist, and yes, different from Communist Russia or China) and grassroots superstar that is bringing out the best of the American Left.

His debate performances have been measured, fact-based and largely policy discussions.

And in response to Trump’s hateful rallying, Sanders strives to make his campaign inclusive. Part of this is a result of his denial of special interest money—the thing that is essentially keeping Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton afloat—instead, Sanders’ campaign relies solely on small donations from grassroots supporters.

In addition, and perhaps this sounds simplistic, but it’s worth mentioning that Sanders is not a racist.

Appearing on Wednesday night on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Sanders was asked to respond to rightwing pundit Bill O’Reilly’s recent assertion that Trump and Sanders are the same candidate. That is, they are receiving unexpected and unprecedented levels of support among those frustrated with the establishment.

But Sanders discredits this claim in his response to Colbert (as if it really needed to be discredited).

“I think a lot of Donald Trump's supporters are angry. They're in many cases people who are working longer hours for low wages. They're people who are really worried about what's going to happen to their kids.

But I think what they have done is responded to Trump's false message, which suggests that if we keep Muslims out of this country or if we keep scapegoating Latinos or Mexicans that somehow our country becomes better. I think that's a false solution,” Sanders said, referring to Trump’s earlier plans to build an enormous wall on the Mexico border and deport all undocumented peoples.

“And my view is that yes, people have a right to be angry. You have a right to be angry when we are the only major country on Earth that doesn't provide paid family and medical leave, when we have more people living in poverty today than almost any time in the history of this country.

People have a right to be angry. But what we need to be is rational in figuring out how we address the problems and not simply scapegoating minorities.”

So certainly, Bernie is gaining and deserves the support of American Muslims over Trump, almost by default. He is not espousing racist ideologies against one of the most educated, charitable and diverse communities in the United States.

But in the interest of Muslims globally, Sanders also deserves the support of American Muslims over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

While in the Senate, Clinton supported every armed conflict in Muslim majority countries that came up for vote. Most notably is her support of the failed Iraq War, a baseless colonial incursion led by the United States that caused the death of nearly 200,000 Iraqi civilians. Sanders voted against the war. As Secretary of State, Clinton also advocated a no-fly zone over Libya and rallied against the coup that ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

If she is elected president, it is almost a certainty that the United States will be dragged into further Middle East quagmires, vying for American empire under the guise of “defending freedom”.

Even though Bernie Sanders is culturally Jewish—he is completely secular—Clinton’s associations with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggest she will ramp up military aid, in effect lengthening the occupation of Muslim majority Palestine. She wrote as much in a November Jewish Daily Forward article.

Sanders has a complicated relationship with Israel, but his career-long commitment to helping marginalized communities is a good indication he will be the first U.S. president to put in check Netanyahu and the U.S.-funded, out of control Israeli settler colonialism.

In short, American Muslims are an important and historically high-volume voting group. And although not monolithic in the slightest, Muslim support for Sanders is not surprising. American Muslims are good for Sanders, Sanders is good for American Muslims and both are good for the United States.