When Hiba Abdallah moved to Rochelle from Jerusalem, where traditional Islam is taught, she noticed the influence of modernism on Islamic views and practices.

Though traditional religious practices are often taught in religions such as Islam, Judaism and Catholicism, students acknowledge modernism and its influence on religion.

Traditional Islamic religious practices tend to follow the lifestyle of the last prophet Mohammed, which is conservative and simple, Abdallah said. Modern religious practices tend to be more liberal and many times incorporate different influences such as cultures and demographics, she said.

Abdallah considers herself to be a modern Muslim.

“Growing up in Rochelle, there wasn’t a strong Muslim surrounding,” said Abdallah, a senior finance major and president of the Muslim Student Association. “I have adapted to many things in the American culture, for if I lived in Jerusalem, I bet my religious views would lean more towards traditional.”

Islam has helped her to “be more focused and more religion-oriented.”

MSA students vary in traditional and modern views, she said. Factors such as how each person was raised and where they lived or migrated from play a large role in individual views and how Islam is practiced.

“I really think there is a mix of what students feel should be the way Islam is practiced,” Abdallah said. “Islam itself is a minority in the United States. Many of these students come from foreign ethnic groups – that alone can put stress on how Islam should be practiced and how students react to influences surrounding them.”

Whether traditional or modern, students seem to conform to surrounding lifestyles and have consistent religious views, she said.

“I think both Islamic practices go hand-in-hand, for they allow ideas to be exchanged and different views to be understood,” Abdallah said.

As in Judaism, extreme traditional and extreme modern views are very different, said Mandy Moskowitz, a senior speech-language pathology major and president of the Hillel Jewish Student Organization.

The extreme traditional, or Orthodox, maintain strict rules, Moskowitz said. They hold to all rules of the Sabbath, where men and women have to be separated. If the Orthodox congregation allows women to pray, men in general hold a higher position when praying, she said.

Religion is a “personal and individual set of beliefs,” that, depending on the student, may be applied differently, she said.

“I personally prefer traditional views,” Moskowitz said. “I grew up with those values and views; it is what I am more comfortable with.”

Moskowitz feels more modern views are practiced in DeKalb.

Like in Islam and Judaism, certain rules also apply to Catholic practices.

Though some contemporary music may be instituted into a mass, the structure must remain traditional, said Father Godwin Asuquo of the Newman Catholic Center.

“The mass is a continuation of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross,” Asuquo said. “The mass makes that sacrifice from 2000 years ago present today.”

As for traditional and modern views, the Newman Catholic Center “is not one or the other, but is both,” Asuquo said.

Certain adaptations may be made to the mass, but only if they do not change the basic structure of the mass, he said.

“This makes for universality because the Catholic Church was established by Christ as a universal church,” Asuquo said. “We combine the old and the new [as long as] the modern do not contradict our long-standing traditions.”

For more information on religious organizations at NIU, visit www.sa.niu.edu/org_alphalist.