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New Day

Understanding ISIS and Islam; Pistorius Sentencing Begins; Pereira's Roots in Jamaica

Aired October 13, 2014 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

REZA ASLAN, AUTHOR, "ZEALOT": Now, again, that's not unique to Islam. If you have 19 out of 21 Muslim countries that have, for instance, sharia on the books, of those 19 countries, very, very few actually implement sharia itself. For most of those countries, it's just symbolic. Fifteen countries, for instance, actually have stoning as punishment for adultery the in their books. But of those 15 countries, only three of them have there actually been any kinds of stonings. And even in those three countries, Iran, Somalia and Pakistan, in Iran, there's a moratorium on it, in Pakistan it's not national law. But nevertheless, because there is lip service to these kinds of draconian seventh century punishments within the penal code, you have regional groups, groups that are far removed from the government itself, that enact these kinds of draconian law. So the real issue here isn't a matter of beliefs, it's a matter of actions.

What we have to do is actually condemn actions. Figure out where in the world these horrific human rights abuses are taking place and actually do something about it. And what's really fascinating here, what's -- where we're lost in this debate, is that the people at the forefront of trying to do something about these grave human rights abuses are Muslims themselves. I mean really the great fallacy here is that liberals aren't speaking out against, you know, crimes in the name of Islam. That Muslims are not --

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Right, that's what Bill Moore (ph) was saying.

ASLAN: Right, that Muslims - that's just simply not true. I mean it's feminists and activists and progressives, particularly within the Muslim community and outside of the Muslim community, who are at the forefront of pushing back against these kinds of human rights abuses. The problem is, is that their voices aren't very amplified. They themselves are not very empowered. They are the majority, but their voices are not the loudest. And what we really need to do as a media - as a group is to empower those voices so that they become the loudest voices, not the voices of extremism.

CAMEROTA: OK, great suggestions, Reza. So, focus on actions, focus on the individual countries, don't use a broad brush stroke to paint all Muslim countries. It's great talking to you. I'm glad that we've had this very cool headed discussion. And it's always great to get your perspective on that world.

ASLAN: Let's keep it going. Let's keep it going. Listen, as a scholar of religions, I am thrilled that we are having this conversation - CAMEROTA: Great.

ASLAN: Because this is the conversation that usually I have with my students. But this is an important conversation. Religion is not going away people. So we have to talk about it. Let's talk about it in a calm, calm way.

CAMEROTA: Good message. Reza, great to see you. Thanks so much.

ASLAN: Thanks Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Chris, over to you.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Hoorah (ph). Tone matters, you know, and we love to - why do we have the Moore and Affleck (ph) thing? Because of how heated it got. That's what it was. Nobody knows what either said was really saying. I mean you analyzed it very well in your interview with Reza. But tone matters. And until you can have conversations like this all the time, you're just going to have people holding firm the positions that don't make sense on both sides. Thank you for that, Alisyn. Very nicely done.

Another question for you this morning, how long will Oscar Pistorius spend in prison? You know he could spend no time in prison. It's not likely, but we're still to find out. The blade runner will soon learn his fate for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. We have a live report out of South Africa straight ahead.

Plus, we've been waiting for this all morning. Please, come with us and take a trip with Michaela. She's going to learn more about her history. She travelled to Jamaica. You will never guess what she found out about her ancestors. It's part of CNN's brand new root series. I can't wait. Come back with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Oscar Pistorius' sentencing hearing has just adjourned for the day. It got underway this morning. And, ultimately, the decision rests with the same judge who rendered the verdict. Last month she said he was guilty of culpable homicide in the 2013 shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. That's the United States equivalent of let's say manslaughter. Our Robyn Curnow has been all over this trial from the very beginning. She's back there now monitoring it for us.

So it ended. No big surprise there. But where do we stand in the process?

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's supposed to be one step closer to knowing his fate. But, you know, no real clear idea of where this is going. We know, of course, that Oscar Pistorius will be punished for his actions for killing his girlfriend. But one of the options for the judge, she's got a lot to choose from. A court official, a prison official coming into court today saying that he recommends that Oscar Pistorius has three years of house arrest and community service. On hearing that, the state said that is shockingly inappropriate. And that, of course, legally gives them an indication that they will appeal.

So where is this all going to go? Will it be enough for Reeva Steenkamp's family? It's going to continue tomorrow. All these arguments in mitigation of his sentence. And, of course, the state then will take up the mantle and start arguing in aggravation of his sentence. So there's still a lot more argument all based, Chris, on character, not really based on fact or law.

CUOMO: Although it does seem, given its duration, that it's almost like a second trial. So we'll keep watching it when it starts again tomorrow. Robyn, thanks for being on it for us.

Mic.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, well, talk about a trip of a lifetime. A long time in the making. Come with me as I travel to Jamaica as I learn about and fall in love with a place - the place of my ancestors.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Oh, I'm wide awake now. All right, we're going to turn now to a series, a special weeklong CNN series, that's been a year in the making. Actually, for me, more so like 40 years in the making. "Roots: Our Journeys Home" is a very special project. Thirteen CNN anchors and hosts set out to discover where they're from and who they are. So recently I got to go to Jamaica to see a place that my ancestors came from, St. James Parish.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: So my adoption journey began when I was very young. I was three-months-old when I was adopted by Doug and Ansly (ph), mom and dad.

You took one look at my family and you knew there was something here that was a little different. I was the only black kid I knew or part black kid or brown kid anywhere. In Canada, I had to go through the government if I wanted to search for my birth family. They connected with my birth mother's family.

She was a wonderful woman that I didn't get to meet. I missed her by about a year. She lost a very brave battle with cancer. And if I had found her when I started looking, she would have been in the throes of that period in her life. And it would have been very difficult for her.

But the fact is, all of what you see in front of you, the color of my skin, the curl of my hair, comes from my father's side, my birth father's side. And I don't know anything about him.

A door has already been shut to me that way and I'm not going to force it open. Beyond the fact of what it said on this piece of paper that my birth father's family was from Jamaica, that's all I know.

PEREIRA (voice-over): So now I'm starting the search again to find out more about my heritage.

PEREIRA: Do I need to be scrubbed?

PEREIRA (voice-over): This time it all starts with a DNA test.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you gave us a saliva sample.

PEREIRA (on camera): Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have found a second cousin, two third cousins, and multiple fourth cousins of yours. Is that sinking in? I can tell you now that is on your father's side. And it does go back to Jamaica.

PEREIRA: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got the name of the town. We have some pictures of some of your ancestors. There's a settlement in Jamaica - oh, located in the parish of St. James in the mountains.

PEREIRA: (INAUDIBLE). St. James in the mountains. Southeast of Montego.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PEREIRA (voice-over): Because the doors to my birth father closed to me, I chose instead to investigate the place my ancestors were from instead of contacting these cousins.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to Jamaica.

PEREIRA: My DNA results pointing to Montego Bay and Cambridge. I came here to take it all in, the scenery, the food.

PEREIRA (on camera): There's a whole fish in my soup and I could not be happier. I really cannot be happier.

PEREIRA (voice-over): And m importantly, the people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt that there was no way that you could come to Jamaica and not get one of these Jamaican scarves.

PEREIRA (on camera): Because you're worried about me being in New York and freezing -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the winter.

PEREIRA: And you want me to remember my roots.

PEREIRA (voice-over): I wanted to soak up as much as I could to learn what it truly means to be Jamaican. It seemed no matter where we were on the island, for every moment there's a song.

Our first stop, Montego Bay fishermen's village.

PEREIRA (on camera): I guess we're ready to go fishing. I'm meeting somebody here. PEREIRA (voice-over): Knowing that I'm part Jamaican, I wanted to experience first hand how some of the people here in Montego Bay, or Mo Bay as the locals call it, make their living.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a square fish, we call it renchmon (ph) locally.

Meet Devin Gray (ph), my tour guide for the morning. He is also the chairman of the Mo Bay Fisherman's Cooperative Society.

PEREIRA (on camera): Here we go, alright. Where should I leave these? Just here, or bring them? Okay. Wish me luck. If you're way out there, you can't see land, can you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you can't see land if you're way out there. Most of us just know our way back in.

Whoa, look at that. I want her to get a hold of that.

PEREIRA: Look at the size of those claws.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's a king crab.

PEREIRA: That's a good looking crab, mon. It just jumped in the water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Captain's overboard.

PEREIRA: Captain overboard.

PEREIRA (voice-over): For these men, it's more than just a fishing collective, it's a family.

PEREIRA (on camera): Come here. What do you have in there? Look at that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not a good catch last night.

PEREIRA: Not a good catch last night? That's okay. Every day is a new day, right? Bye, Johny (ph).

PEREIRA (voice-over): This first leg of my journey, already such a warm welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Typical day, a beautiful day too. And, of course, a beautiful Jamaica lady returning home.

PEREIRA: Now to really get a sense of life here, I wanted to spend time with a Jamaican family in their home.

PEREIRA (on camera): There they are. Hello. Hi. You must be Linda.

PEREIRA (voice-over): Linda and Peter, who we met through a friend, graciously welcomed me and quickly put me to work.

PEREIRA (on camera): I can shimmy and shake and saute. Oh, that smells to good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Next we will add the - -

PEREIRA: The salt fish.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The salt fish.

PEREIRA: Okay. And the whole thing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, just put the whole thing in there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And just mix it up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did a great job, chef.

PEREIRA: I'm exhausted. What a beautiful, beautiful blessing.

PEREIRA (voice-over): I learned so much about family, food, and culture right here at this dinner table.

(SINGING)

PEREIRA: Peter and Linda and their family were quick to make me feel at home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is Jamaica what you expected it to be?

PEREIRA (on camera): It's been even more. I didn't know just how friendly Jamaicans were. I can't stop smiling since I've been here. Literally, every person that we talk to says welcome home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we're a typical Jamaican family. Jamaicans, we work hard. We're very industrious and, you know, the joke in America and in Canada Jamaicans tend to have twenty jobs? It's true. We work hard. We're very industrious people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a saying in Jamaica that says (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

PEREIRA: Okay, which means?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're a small nation, but we are great people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we're big.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're big people.

PEREIRA (voice-over): In my new home away from home, there is rarely a moment of silence. Reggae is in Jamaican's bones. The anthem that's made this country famous, it's on constant replay. Those vibrations coming from here, the Rastafarian village. We're here to meet with Rastafari and learn how they molded Jamaica into becoming the country of one love.

PEREIRA (on camera): Hello (inaudible)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a blessed love.

PEREIRA: Are you going to take me across the river?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Definitely.

PEREIRA: Alright. Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me your shoes and hold on to a brother.

PEREIRA: Hold on to a brother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Rastafari.

PEREIRA: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jamaica's motto is out of many, one people.

PEREIRA: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which means that Jamaica was never really meant to be a country in the state it is now. Right? The Japanese, Indians, Chinese, Germans, all over Europe, they all come together and make - -

PEREIRA: This place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This place.

PEREIRA (voice-over): The music, a reminder of their roots.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today, Jabi (ph), with the big base drum represents our history.

PEREIRA: With the pulse of Jamaica now in my soul, I'm headed to the heart of my journey.

PEREIRA (on camera): Today we're on the way to Cambridge. We believe that some of my ancestors come from this area of Cambridge.

PEREIRA (voice-over): This little church on the hill, my ancestor's place of worship. For some, their final resting place.

PEREIRA (on camera): There's the potential that ancestors of mine are buried here. It's startling, and amazing, and wonderful. Are you from Cambridge?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes (inaudible).

PEREIRA (voice-over): Mr. Griffith (ph) lives across the street from the church.

PEREIRA (on camera): You remember walking up these stairs?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my. I was a choir boy up there.

PEREIRA: You were a choir boy at this church? Do you feel a sense of pride coming back here? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PEREIRA: Oh, my goodness. Look at the view.

PEREIRA (voice-over): We walked around the remains St. Steven's Anglican Church, staring at the very spot where my ancestors used to pray every Sunday.

PEREIRA (on camera): Man, if these walls could talk.

PEREIRA (voice-over): After Mr. Griffith left.

PEREIRA (on camera): I'm really grateful I got to come here.

PEREIRA (voice-over): I took a moment in the church by myself.

I remember saying that I would love to find some context for that other side of me that I don't know anything about. This feels, if this is it, this is great. I look at faces a little longer and try to imagine if they see something in me that's familiar. To think that maybe somebody that was connected to me stood in this very church, that's really powerful. Kind of magical really.

Well, it has been four wonderful, warm, enlightening days, but it feels like I'm not done yet.

PEREIRA (on camera): I experienced first hand what people feel it is to be Jamaican. There's a great sense of pride in the people here. There's a great sense of joy in the people here. They love music. They love to dance. I can't tell you how many times people spontaneously broke out in song.

It was the most generous gift somebody could give me. Every person that heard my story and understood that I was a child looking for connection, every single person said welcome home, and it was amazing, and unforgettable. It was like -- it was like coming home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Thank you, CNN, for giving me that gift.

CAMEROTA: Wow. It's really poignant.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: Let it be said, my parents have been holding my hand through this whole thing, and have been so magical and so supportive. But they understood that this importance of finding ones roots is always such a nagging question for adopted kids, you know. And I feel so grateful to CNN that they let me do it on the company dime.

CAMEROTA: When you were there, were you tempted to try to find your biological father's family?

PEREIRA: Every once in a while, but I didn't want to do it this way. I want to do it quietly, and when I'm at peace, and with my parent's arms wrapped around me. I don't want to do it this way. Like I said in the piece, I had started a search, and the door was closed. I lucked out with my birth sister. She threw the door wide open and now we are fast friends. I don't really want to tempt fate again. I feel like I hit the lottery once, and if the door was closed, it might not be for me to throw my shoulder into it and force it open.

CAMEROTA: Yes, it's understandable. But, it was so powerful to watch you go on this process of discovery. Really, really special that you shared it with us.

PEREIRA: I brought you stuff.

CAMEROTA: What?

PEREIRA: I did. So, here's the deal. You, my man. I didn't bring you Redstripe.

CUOMO: Oh, hurray beer.

PEREIRA: And just so that Jamaica is always with you, there's a key chain for you to put your keys on.

CUOMO: Oh, thank you very much.

PEREIRA: And, my girl, I brought this for you because I knew that you needed - -- because couldn't be Jamaican.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

PEREIRA: I wanted you to feel like a Jamaican.

CAMEROTA: I love it. I need it in the studio.

PEREIRA: And then for baby Cecilia.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.

PEREIRA: I got a little onesie for her.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRAL: KB, this is on the way for Cecilia. She's going to need to grow a little bit, little girl. So I brought some little things. You have to wait and see what I brought JB. You'll see that tomorrow.

CUOMO: Really?

PEREIRA: Oh, lord.

CUOMO: Because you know they make a lot of other stuff in Jamaica.

PEREIRA: They do. I consumed a little bit of the rum version. So many stories for us to tell. "ROOTS: OUR JOURNEYS HOME" is going to air all this week on CNN. Tonight, Anderson learns about his father's history on "AC 360." That's at 8:00 pm. Tomorrow we get to look at Chris' roots in Italy. It's going to be amazing. You can see all the behind the scenes photos and more from my journey, and all of us will post them, obviously, at CNN.com/roots. Some of the photography from behind the scenes when we weren't necessarily on camera.

CAMEROTA: Oh, good. Can't wait to see that. It's all so compelling. I can't wait to see yours.

CUOMO: Look, it's always good to learn more about yourself. But, I'll tell you, Mick is a very special person. You guys have gotten to know that, and you have to remember that we are all how we get here. You know what I mean?

CAMEROTA: Collection of our experiences.

CUOMO: Her parents are amazing people, not just because they adopted kids. That's probably the least of it.

PEREIRA: Hi, mommy. Hi, daddy.

CUOMO: They're so special.

PEREIRA: They really are.

CUOMO: And everything that's gone into you has made you just one of the best people anybody who meets you has ever been around.

PEREIRA: The fact that they walked with me through it was really important. This is, like, a collective. And you guys, too. Thank you. Thanks for letting me share.

CUOMO: You make everybody family. I feel a little Jamaican now.

PEREIRA: Is that because of that?

CUOMO: What I'm going to put in it. Alright, so, we have to get back to the news for you. That's what we do here, and we want to talk to you about a key Syrian border town because it's close to falling into ISIS hands this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

CUOMO (voice-over): Despite ramped-up airstrikes, the big question, is Kobani lost? Details on "NEWSROOM" with Ana Cabrera in for Carol Costello. Stay with us after the break. We have to have a good cry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)