George Washington was merely talking about not entangling our Republic and its Christian culture in entanglements with other nations. He could not have ever imagined that we would actually allow the savage, non-Christian population of those places to flood into the USA.
George Washington and several others, including British and French powers, were well aware of the muslim pirates roaming the Mediterranean and other trade routes.
Bribery was a “currency” that sometimes negotiated a deal, and sometimes not, with the barbaric Islamic royalty.