They said it was a hoax because the writer didn't capitalize allah or makkah. I would not have determined/assumed from that that it was a hoax because in Arabic, there are no capital letters. I used to teach English to Arabic speaking students. Proper nouns weren't a terribly difficult concept, but they commonly forgot to capitalize until they got used to writing in English a great deal.I tried to explain, using Allah, that in English, addressing God as "god" was diminishing Him and bad form, besides being incorrect.
Now, it is clear that today/yesterday, they didn't blow up the schools and it does seem to be a hoax---but if they are determining hoaxes based on poor English skills when they are apparently clueless about their language or culture, we are in a world of hurt.
I'm so glad it was a hoax, but it is scary to think that is how they decide whether to worry about a threat or not. Can't the powers that be get better intel than that? They seem as clueless as Joe Blow (all respect to Mr. Blow!)
Do terrorists ever really give useful warnings ahead of time in any case? Is that a normal thing? Or do they just take "credit" for it afterwards?