No self-respecting 65-year-old would call himself "Boy George". And listen a second time to his latest release? Not even if you chained me to a radiator and beat me. George O'Dowd is "Buddhist in my aspirations, Catholic in my complications". But that is the wrong way round.
The Buryats, with the Chechens noted as exceptionally cruel Russian fighters in Ukraine, are followers of the Dalai Lama, who has never condemned either the invasion of Afghanistan or the invasion of Iraq. For more on Buddhism as no more a religion of peace than Islam (no less so, but no more), then see Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mongolia, Japan, Thailand, and beyond. In fact, an examination of the relevant texts shows that violence in general and war in particular are fundamental to Buddhism. Tibet is particularly striking for this.
A rare balanced treatment of Buddhism and violence was broadcast in August 2013. The subject is also addressed in great detail here. Suella Braverman would indeed press the nuclear button. It is the Catholic Church that permits either Christian pacifism, a minority view at least since very early but never condemned, or the just war doctrine to which most of us adhere and which the present Pope has explained may well be inapplicable in the circumstances of contemporary warfare. Nuclear weapons are not compatible with either. Nor is what Israel is doing in Gaza, in Lebanon, in the West Bank, or, with the United States, in Iran.
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