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For thousands of individuals across the Arab world, 2011 has already become the year in which the political and social realities of their hitherto corrupt and despotic autocratic systems changed The world has watched with bated breath as populations in Tunisia, Egypt, and now Bahrain, Libya and also Yemen have mobilised against their (predominantly western-backed) rulers But alongside the elation has also been a host of other, less familiar sentiments: surprise, awe, intrigue and self-reflection The uprisings in Egypt and across the Arab world have done more than undermine the authority of geriatric dictatorships in the Middle East; they have called into question the founding principles of western diplomacy and the prevailing counter-Enlightenment ideology of cultural relativism   Much ink has been spilled by commentators debating the reasons for this flaring of the revolutionary spirit in the Middle East, but one view that has gained near complete consensus is that these protests are surprisingly nonpartisan: human rights and ‘dignity’ being called for above the institution of specific doctrine This particularly apolitical aspect of the protests has lent them both power and flexibility, allowing them to draw on a wide support base that transcends traditionally rigid social hierarchies   This has come as a shock for those western powers who have so vehemently justified their support of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East as the only pragmatic means of guarding against the bogeyman of Islamic fundamentalism in the region Because the Arab world, so they claimed, was both wild and uncivilised; a place where bearded men in flowing white robes roamed the streets instilling the fear of God in the hearts and minds of the people, where women were reduced to nothing but shapeless black shadows, where wild-eyed believers sacrificed themselves to the greater cause of Islam, and where the western values of liberalism and democracy were both unfamiliar and unwelcome Without the iron rods of dictators to keep them in check, the argument ran, the uncivilised wretches of these countries would find no other recourse than in Islamic fundamentalism and anti-western sentiment ‘The effect,’ says Gary Younge in an article for the