“had white people not been willing to pay for slaves there wouldn’t have been a market”
Had muslims not provided the market (and predatory black Africans not provided their neighbors as product), there would not have been the option available for the white people.
Islam is the greatest force in the history of slavery. From their earliest conquests, the taking of slaves was among the largest components of the booty.
Muslims maintained a large scale enslavement and slave trading system, well into the 20th century (the reigning Sultan of Oman, freed the slaves of Oman early in his reign). The coasts of Southern Italy remained sparsely populated into the 1800’s, because of constant muslim slave raids, and America’s first foreign war was against muslim slavers (Barbary Pirates).
Although muslim slave markets historically emphasized women and boys for domestic and sexual service, there was always some market for young men as laborers, such as for mines and galley slaves to row ships. European customers simply shifted their product mix.
Europeans largely lacked legal means to enslave people, when their colonies were pressed with labor shortages. Only the availability of a ready (and long pre-existing) supply of slaves from muslim markets in Africa, made it a feasible option.
Again pointing at others is a form of deflection