Morning, noon and night, what sounds like machine-gun fire, bomb blasts and whizzing rockets resonates through the streets of Jakarta, leaving the impression that the separatist violence raging in distant provinces has come to Indonesia's capital.

But there are no deadly clashes between the military and secessionist rebels here, only mischievous youths banging on drums and setting off firecrackers and noise makers at all hours to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The cacophony, the worst in recent memory, has set off widespread complaints from Muslims and non-Muslims alike here in the world's most populous Muslim country.

''A day or two of this activity, as in other countries, especially China, would be bearable, but we have got to endure sleepless nights and being rudely awakened at the crack of dawn for a month, and we are only halfway there,'' a reader wrote recently in The Jakarta Post.

A Jakarta police spokesman, Anton Bachrul Alam, said that while he sympathizes with the many complaints over noisy Ramadan celebrations, there was little more the police could do, having confiscated more than 3,500 pounds of firecrackers, which are illegal in Indonesia but are widely sold and used during the month.

''We are urging the public to exercise tolerance for people of different faiths and to tone down the Ramadan festivities in consideration for those who don't have to get up for predawn meals,'' Mr. Alam said.

But no one expects to get a good night's sleep anytime soon. Ramadan, when Muslims are required to fast during daylight hours, is perhaps the one time of year when Indonesia, which has never been too concerned with following Islam to the letter, tries to act like a traditional Muslim state.

Unlike many other Islamic countries, Indonesia does not require women to cover their heads in public or segregate themselves from men. As the faithful are called to mosques for evening prayers, many young people in Indonesia head for bars and discos. So far, there is no constitutional precedence given to Islam in Indonesia, where 85 percent of the country's 210 million people are Muslim but other religions are freely practiced.

But during Ramadan, public schools are closed, and most restaurants and street stalls do not open until sundown. Many employers reduce working hours to accommodate fasting employees, and television stations voluntarily censor sexually suggestive scenes from programs. The city government requires bars and nightclubs to shut down by midnight, and many do not open at all.

After evening prayers and supper, many young people celebrate Ramadan by setting off firecrackers late into the night. And as the firecracker explosions end, boys in street parades begin banging on drums at about 3 a.m. to summon the slumbering for sahur, the predawn meal.

While Indonesia has a reputation for being one of the most tolerant Islamic countries, many non-Muslims and foreigners living here have expressed concern over what they see as the growing influence of Islamic fundamentalism on public life in Indonesia, a trend that they said was especially evident this Ramadan.

Although Indonesia has large pockets of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists, the government closed public schools for Ramadan to allow students ''to concentrate on the practice of their faith.''

Since the start of the month, two militant Muslim groups have attacked discos, pubs and restaurants that they considered sinful. Armed with sticks and swords, the groups have roughed up patrons and vandalized the establishments in an effort to close them.

In the city of Jogjakarta, another Muslim group threatened to vandalize an exhibition of modern art that it said included pornographic paintings that were disturbing Ramadan.

A spokesman for the exhibit said works containing nude images would be hung facing the wall and placed in full view only at the request of visitors.

Long before Ramadan began, Indonesia experienced a wave of threats and attacks against Americans, Israelis and nightspots by Muslim militants.

Aryoso, an accountant who is Christian, said that it was not so bad that her favorite restaurant was closed for lunch during Ramadan or that a local television station edited out her favorite scene from the movie ''Risky Business,'' in which a young Tom Cruise dances in his underwear. But Mrs. Aryoso said she was deeply troubled by the closing of public schools for Ramadan and the continued attacks on entertainment establishments, which she said the government tacitly approved by failing to stop them.

''I think most non-Muslims recognize the importance of Ramadan to our fellow Indonesians, and as a show of support, we often join our Muslim friends in fasting for a day or two,'' Mrs. Aryoso said. ''But I am worried that our country's respect for religious freedom is disappearing.''

Under former President Suharto's military government, ethnic or religious violence was not tolerated in Indonesia. But the fall of Mr. Suharto in 1998 brought new political and social freedoms and a rise in militant Islamic movements and fighting between Christians and Muslims in the Moluccas, the Spice Islands of old.

President Abdurrahman Wahid, a cleric and former head of the country's largest Muslim organization, has long stressed the need for religious tolerance and freedom of thought. But Mr. Wahid, who was elected last year, has seemed unable to control growing religious clashes. Facing increasing pressure from Muslim groups, he has made some concessions. Most notably, he has agreed to introduce Islamic law in the far western province of Aceh as a way of diluting support for separatists who want to establish an independent Muslim state.

And for many poor Indonesians who struggle to afford just one meal a day in a weak economy, fasting during Ramadan is no longer the sacrifice it used to be.

''What fasting month are you talking about? My family and I have been fasting the past three years,'' said Zainuddin, a civil servant with four children who makes about $25 a month and survives mainly on rice and tempe, a fermented-soybean cake rich in vitamins.