ISLAM-CHRISTIAN DIALOGUE

202 FAMILY AND GLOBALISATION: A TESTIMONY 1 - 2017 What family for a peaceful future? The family is like a tree with deep roots, branches and leaves. The root of the tree can be compared to the thought of Pierre Tei-lhard de Chardin: "We are not human beings with spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings with human experience." It's easier to internalize this statement than to explain it. Theillard de Chardin, a French Jesuit, my father's teacher in Cairo; also for this re- ason I feel that he is an author very close to my interiority. - My family in Egypt - Parents and children - The challenges of the traditional family - Human Rights and Marriage - Islamic immigration and family - Husband and wife: The law of love My family in Egypt: We are seven brothers and sisters born in Egypt, migrated to three different con- tinents. As a result of discriminatory laws and acts against non-Muslim citizens, we have been pushed towards emigration one after the other. The parents, left alo- ne, recommended that we keep in con- tact with them and help each other, write a weekly letter and have it circulated to everyone, choose light paper to lighten the postal burden, carbon cards to dupli- cate (Egyptian censorship opened all the letters) are formalities that kept us spiri- tually united. Little by little, the description of the daily life of an emigrant in search of work and affection took over from the description of the daily life of an emigrant in sear- ch of work and affection, the strength of one's feelings towards the other and the discovery of how much family ties kept us united. My wife and I passed this habit on to our four children, writing our best wi- shes at every anniversary occasion, thus strengthening the cohesion between us. Maintaining correspondence was diffe- rent from today. With my granddaughter in Oceania, in contact through skype and internet, the expression of feelings, even in the ease of current barrier-free com- munications, is not deepened to the same extent, it remains a mere description of current life, or quick verbal contacts to- day; I think that family feelings are enri- ched more by letters, which require care, attention, introspection. Parents and children Through the children God renews the world. The heart of a child is similar to that of a Saint; it is known that in the womb the child is reached by the affection and thoughts of the pregnant woman in pre- paration for the meeting and the embrace that will welcome him. The family has a decisive influence on our personality; we are always born within a human context, in a woman's body and in her network of relationships, whether single, married or divorced. Ideally the family is a spa- ce where children are raised, find secu- rity and learn trust, but also a context of mutual love and responsibility throughout life. Parents can learn from their children but remain the first teachers in life. The fa- mily environment influences the existen- tial perspectives of the children; the pre-