Tharwat Elsha needed three stitches to his face after the assault by a number of men outside the shop in which he works on the Strand Road on Tuesday.
Two men, aged 20 and 41, were arrested and released on police bail pending further enquiries.
Mr Elsha, who has lived in Derry for three years, said he was assaulted with a piece of metal.
He said: "I felt scared because one of them looked at me and told me: 'I will shot (sic) you, I will cut your neck off.'
"Why we have to work like that? Why we have to serve people like that?
"I don't know why they didn't like us."
He said his wife, who witnessed the attack, has been left in shock and is now unable to work.
But he added that he not experienced any previous trouble in his time living in Derry and would not be driven out of the city as a result of the attack.
An Egyptian man who was the victim of a racist attack in Londonderry has said he feared for his life.