They weren't pirates. The Barbary traders were responding to the European inquisition that saw pogroms all over Europe that slaughtered and tortured Muslims and

They weren't pirates. The Barbary traders were responding to the European inquisition that saw pogroms all over Europe that slaughtered and tortured Muslims and Jews alike. And the attacks and conquest by Christians against Andalusia. There was also a sense of containing European expansion after the crusades. For instance, many of the Jews that settled in North Africa were Iberian refugees rescued by those "pirates".