"but I just read the Wikipedia entry for Gene Sharp, which links to a NY Times article about his supposed influence in the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings."

I'd already linked to this, it's a pity you don't actually bother to read what's being discussed.

 Informed history isn't written by people who dismiss things based on generalised claims such as "We all know how reliable the NYT is." You need to do the somewhat more demanding work of justifying the claim that this particular article is wrong or misleading - and not by the pathetic repetition that Angry Arab says so - I've already shown that he can't even report an article accurately.

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.