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Notes -
Hanging Indians who went against western moral sensibilities is not how the British have conquered India. It’s rather an obsession from the period when their hold on the country was already waning. The people who actually conquered India were either pirates who just wanted to loot and couldn’t care less about Indian widows, or people like Fraser who had great respect for the Indian way of life and almost assimilated with the local elite.
Same with your analogy of fighting against something called “radical Islam”. When the west was making its successful inroads into the Arab world they didn’t make much fuss about the fact that many of these countries were theocratic kingdoms with literal slavery. It is a 2000s phenomenon that the west tried to settle on a civilisational mission to fight against Islam, and it has catastrophically failed. It made westerners lose a lot of influence and self confidence and is ultimately abandoned at this point.
The 19th century French invasions of Algeria was justified (partially) on the basis of ending the Barbary slave trade by force. It was also referenced in Napolean's adventures in Egypt and Syria. I think "literally slavery" is something the West is (too) often willing to overlook, but not universally so.
Important to note here in the context that Barbary slave trade included raiding European/Christian ships as well as European coastal villages. This is not as big of an anti slavery crusade as you imply, but more specifically European naval powers defending their own people.
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