The reason that much music is religion-based is economic. The Church supported the music. The music could have been there without the Church but it paid the bills. Sometimes the music bound people together who were oppressed but it was still
the Church that paid the bills. They exacted their price which was loyalty.

If fundamental Islam wants to isolate its children, there is nothing anyone can do about it except that if it becomes a Separation of Church and State issue then it must be addressed legally.

I don't think ultimately that Islamist extremists who pull their children out of music classes can prevail. (Kat Stevens notwithstanding). This is analogous to the Christian fundamentalists who eschew dancing and early hard-shell Baptists who thought that the fiddle and banjo were instruments of the devil.

And then there was Ars Nova.

Music is often revolutionary and will not succumb to religious authoritarianism.

The only way out of this ignorant morass is through education.

Religion may not be monolithic but the problem is that the degrees of fundamentalism
can't be mapped specifically. There are those who maintain they are "liberal" in their religion that will excuse extremism on the part of others, the forgiveness of child abusing priests for example, or the assault on peaceful flotillas in Gaza.

Bigotry has been the province of religious groups for a long time. In fact, it may be religion that fostered the whole concept of bigotry by xenophobia and isolation.
John Wesley, Martin Luther and early Catholics supported witch burning. The bible has been used to justify all kinds of bigoted atrocities based on "the Sons of Ham" and "Leviticus 22".

This is not to say that all religious people are bigoted. Many are content to see other points of view than just their own. The intelligent ones keep their religion to themselves
and don't try to force it on others. They are smart when they don't talk about it publicly. When religion becomes a public forum, then the trouble begins. The preachers cause havoc. The battle lines are drawn between Catholic and Protestant, Zionist and Islamic
groups such as Hamas. Then there is McChrystal who has tried to Christianize the military.
(I wonder about Petraeus.) In this application, religion does become monolithic in its destructive behavior. It is not bigotry to point this out. It bears a relationship to this thread topic.

The solution is to make religion a private matter and uphold the Separation of Church and State. In the US, people are supposedly free to believe whatever they want without forcing it on others. I can respect this right if it isn't breached by religious zealotry forced on the public.

The question remains, can religious people honor this uniquely American tradition?