Killing an Arab
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"Killing an Arab" was the first UK single by The Cure, from their album Three Imaginary Boys (1979). Robert Smith, the song writer, has said that the song "was a short poetic attempt at condensing my impression of the key moments in L'Étranger (The Outsider) by Albert Camus" (Cure News number 11, October 1991). The lyrics describe a shooting on a beach, in which the Arab of the title is killed by the singer.
The song has a history of controversy, since it has often been viewed as promoting violence against Arabs. The Cure's first greatest hits collection, Standing on a Beach (1986), was packaged with a sticker advising against racist usage of the song. The song saw controversy again during the Gulf War and following September 11th [1] (http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2001/10/2907.cfm).
This song lends two of its lines to the titles of one of The Cure's compilation albums, "Standing on a Beach" (the LP) and "Staring at the Sea" (the CD and video version, which contain a couple more songs).