- Waitress, 30, who is of Tunisian origin, was punched to the ground
- Assailants said she should be 'ashamed' for serving alcohol in Ramadan
- The attack was caught on CCTV at the Vitis Café, close to the Nice seafront
- One shouted: 'If I was God, I would have hung you' and called her a whore
Police have launched a criminal investigation after a Muslim waitress in the south of France was attacked for serving alcohol on the first day of Ramadan.
The horrifying assault took place in Nice, the seaside city that will play host to thousands of football fans attending Euro 2016 next week.
Politicians immediately claimed that the incident was an example of the growing influence of religious extremism in France.
The woman, who is of Tunisian origin and observes Ramadan, said one of the men told her in Arabic: ‘You should be ashamed of yourself serving alcohol in the Ramadan period’ at the Vitis Café in Nice (file photo)
Republican MP Eric Ciotti said: ‘This attack should be placed in a national context that has seen a constant rise in religious fundamentalism and ghetto communities.’
At least one illegal migrant is believed to be behind the attack on the 30-year-old woman – who has not been identified – at the Vitis Café, close to the seafront.
She said she was ‘alone in the bar’ on Monday lunchtime when two men ‘pointed to the bottles of alcohol behind the bar’.
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
The woman, who is of Tunisian origin, said one of the men then told her in Arabic: ‘You should be ashamed of yourself serving alcohol in the Ramadan period.’
Ramadan is the time when Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, and smoking from dawn until dusk.
As well as calling her a ‘whore’, the waitress said one shouted: ‘If I was God, I would have hung you.’
CCTV footage allegedly catches one of the men punching the woman to the ground.
The bar’s owner, identified only as Nacim, said: ‘The whole scene was recorded by the security cameras that I gave to the police.’
Preparation: The assault took place in Nice, the seaside city that will play host to thousands of football fans attending Euro 2016 next weekAnti-terror police officers take part in an anti-terrorism exercise at the UEFA EURO 2016 fan zone in Place Bellecour, Lyon
The two men were soon identified – one as an illegal migrant known for his extremist views, but they are tonight still on the run.
The waitress said she always observed Ramadan herself, explaining: ‘It’s not because I serve alcohol that I’m not fulfilling my duty. I do it because I’m a waitress. In Tunisia, I did the same job and never had the slightest problem.’
She told the Nouvel Observateur news outlet: ‘I didn’t think that in France, a free country, I would have been assaulted like that.’
Last year, three men were given six month suspended prison sentences in Nice for threatening a baker who sold ham sandwiches, saying he was ‘not a good Muslim’, for serving the outlawed meat.
MP Mr Ciotti added: ‘Each attack like this strikes a severe blow against the values of the French Republic.’
France has the largest Muslim community in western Europe, of around six million, and many complain of prejudice against them, especially after last year’s Islamic State and Al-Qaeda attacks on Paris, in which almost 150 people died.
Abdallah Zekri, of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, said: ‘We’re fed up of being stigmatised’ because of the extremists.
Last week an ‘immigrant-hating’ far-Right Frenchman was arrested in Ukraine with a ‘vast arsenal’ of weapons and explosives that police said he intended to use on Muslim and Jewish places of worship in his home country.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3632174/Muslim-waitress-assaulted-south-France-serving-alcohol-day-Ramadan.html#ixzz4B6qenHUC
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment