Questions & Answers about Мусульмане не пьют алкоголь.
Why does the plural for 'Muslims' end in -е instead of -ы or -и?
The singular form is мусульманин. Nouns for nationalities, religions, and social classes that end in -анин or -янин follow a special plural pattern. You drop the -ин and add -е for the nominative plural. Therefore, мусульманин becomes мусульмане.
Where does the soft sign come from in the verb пьют?
The infinitive is пить (to drink). This verb has an irregular present tense stem. It drops the -и- and inserts a soft sign, making the stem пь-. It then takes standard endings, so adding -ют gives us the 'they' form пьют.
Since алкоголь is the direct object, why doesn't its ending change?
It is actually in the accusative case here, but its spelling doesn't change because алкоголь is a masculine inanimate noun. For all masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative form is completely identical to the nominative (dictionary) form.
Because the verb is negated with не, shouldn't the object be in the genitive case?
It can be! In Russian, the direct object of a negated verb can take either the genitive or the accusative case. The accusative (алкоголь) is very common in modern everyday speech when stating a direct fact about a concrete thing. The genitive (алкоголя) would also be perfectly correct here and is often used to sound slightly more formal or to emphasize the absolute absence of the object.