Indian Muslims had a history of violent opposition to the British that was at odds with Gandhi's non-violence.
And today, those who advocate violent opposition are being increasingly isolated by Sunnis who choose peaceful participation in the democratic process.
But in the middle of the twentieth century their prescriptivist assumptions came up against violent opposition, at least in the academic world.
Some of those rallies then turned violent when opposition protesters and Mr Morsi's Islamist supporters clashed.
Syrian officials say about 2, 000 members of the security forces have been killed in the unrest, which has become increasingly violent as defectors from the army join the opposition.
Change in Zimbabwe will have to come from the same corrupt and violent lot who are ruining the country now, with the opposition a part of what comes next, but not responsible for forcing a better future.
ECONOMIST: Our online news editor finds the opposition in disarray
The BBC's Jonah Fisher reports that the opposition does not seem to have the appetite for a violent confrontation with the president and his supporters and prefer, instead, to keep turning up the pressure.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) was a saint-genius who turned opposition to British rule into a mass movement and demonstrated, through non-violent protest, that virtue has its own inescapable power.
Guillermo Zuloaga, the owner of an opposition television network, fled the country after a judge ordered him to be sent to a violent prison to await trial on charges relating to his business dealings.
Robert Malley, director of the Middle East and North Africa for the International Crisis Group, told me the opposition is learning the hard way that "elections do matter" and that hitting the streets in violent protest does not always lead to change.
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