style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;">Once in a while unforeseen events throw into relief profound shifts in the geopolitical order. This is what has happened as the Arab uprising has swept into Egypt from Tunisia. The popular challenge to autocratic rulers has put paid to the notion that the Middle East is indifferent to freedom. It has incidentally exposed the delusions of the west.