Zimnako Salah, 46, of Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced to six years in federal prison for a hate crime conspiracy aimed at Christian churches in three states.
Salah was convicted in March 2025 by a federal jury in Sacramento of placing a rucksack in a Roseville, California, church to mimic a bomb and obstruct religious freedom. Jurors determined that Salah’s acts were motivated by animosity toward Christians, making the offense a hate crime.
According to trial evidence, Salah visited four Christian churches in Arizona, California, and Colorado between September and November 2023 while wearing black backpacks. He planted backpacks in two locations, sparking evacuations and terror among congregants. Before he could act, security personnel stopped him at two more churches.
Investigators later discovered bomb components in Salah’s storage container, including materials suitable for building an improvised explosive device. According to FBI analysts, Salah was constructing a device small enough to put in a backpack.
Salah had ingested ISIS propaganda and searched the internet for “Infidels dying.” In a cellphone video taken days before his detention, Salah declared, “America.” “We’re going to destroy it.”
“Today’s sentencing sends a clear message: those who target people because of their faith will face the full force of federal law,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“Salah’s seeming ultimate goal to bomb a Christian church would have resulted in many deaths and injuries if his plan had not been thwarted,” added U.S. Attorney Eric Grant for the Eastern District of California.
The FBI investigated the case with the cooperation of the Roseville Police Department, the San Diego Police Department, the San Diego Harbor Police Department, and the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado.
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