Two Muslim women were "stabbed repeatedly" under the Eiffel Tower in Paris following an argument between them and two white females last week.
The police have arrested the two female suspects after an argument over their dogs took an ugly turn towards violence and racist insults. One of the victims said the attackers pulled out a knife after refusing to leash their dogs and slashed her across the skull, arm and ribs. Dogs are thought of as "unclean" in Islam.
The victims of Sunday's attacks have been identified as French women of Algerian origin, named only as Kenza, 49, and her cousin Amel, who is a few years younger. The attackers have been described as white women of "European appearance," who are now facing attempted murder charges, according to city prosecutors. '
Attackers Called Them 'Dirty Arabs,' Told Them to 'Go Back to Their Country'
"We had gone out for a walk. At the level of the Eiffel Tower there is a small rather dark park, we took a little tour in it. As we walked, there were two dogs that come towards us," Kenza said. "The children got scared. My cousin, who was veiled, asked the two women if it was possible to keep their dogs with them because the children were afraid."
After they refused, "one of the two took out a knife, she slashed me on the skull, on the back on the ribs and there was a third blow on the arm," said Kenza. "They then attacked my cousin." Kenza was stabbed six times and ended up in the hospital with a punctured lung, while Amel suffered injuries on her hands.
Witnesses said they heard the attackers call the women "Dirty Arabs" and told them to "Go home to your own country." Video footage of the incident that is being circulated on social media shows the women screaming as the stabbings are carried out on Sunday evening.
Tensions are High in Paris After Teacher's Killing
The stabbings took place in Paris as tensions are high in the French capital following the gruesome beheading of a teacher by a Muslim extremist last week. As previously reported, Samuel Paty, 47, was decapitated last Friday by an 18-year-old refugee Islamist terrorist Abdullakh Anzarov after he showed his class caricatures lampooning the Prophet Mohammed during a discussion about freedom of speech.
The beheading happened outside the Bois-d'Aulne school in Conflans-Saint-Honorine, north of Paris, where Paty taught French and Geography. The killer was in contact with the father of a girl in Paty's class who had issued a "fatwa" against the teacher. The father, Brahim Chnina, is now in custody.
The incident prompted a broad crackdown on radical Muslims with authorities carrying out dozens of raids, closing down mosques, vowing to shut down aid groups, and probing foreigners suspected of holding extremist religious beliefs as anger swept through the country in the wake of the teacher's killing.
