The road less travelled is always a lonely journey,” says Muhsin Hendricks. As the world’s first openly gay imam he has experienced plenty of rejection, but now he hopes that a new documentary – The Radical, charting his mission to promote sexual diversity in Islam – will be a step towards wider acceptance. Hendricks came out in 1996, aged 29, when he was already an imam, teaching in mosques and at the local madrasa (school). Hate he was ready for. More surprising was the deluge of supportive messages – not least from a couple of fellow imams – and a realisation of the sheer number of closeted gay Muslims.