As I understand it part of the reason many cultures drank a lot of alcoholic beverages is that the water in densely populated areas became too dangerous to drink. How did the muslims get around this in huge cities like Cairo and Istanbul. Were they harder hit by dysentery and Cholera?
Sorry to disappoint, but your question starts from a false premise. People in the premodern world did not, in fact, drink alcohol because water was "too dangerous." They knew how to find safe sources of water.
There's plenty more in our FAQ about this: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/health#wiki_drinking_water