In September 1998, a group of us were brought together in London by an advert placed in the Pink Paper by visiting founder of Al Fatiha Foundation, the US gay Muslim group.

Back then, Muslims who were gay were not part of a discernable group. If anything we were part of a larger, mostly London-based Asian presence that congregated at gay Bhangra clubs like Club Kali and Shakti - if at all.

The need to reconcile Islam with sexuality seemed to coincide with a coming-of-age of a particular generation of gay people from Muslim backgrounds born in this country that had witnessed the growth of a gay culture in England. It was inevitable therefore that at some point they would start to ask, 'Why should I not be able to be both gay and Muslim?'

The birth of the new group Al Fatiha UK (Al Fatiha is the name of the opening chapter in the Quran) was an exciting and invigorating affair. Very quickly plans were made for the very first LGBT Muslim conference. All of us involved in running the group, a collective of about six 20 to 30-something lesbian and gay Muslims of Pakistani origin, rallied round and began fundraising for the groundbreaking event.

Since then we have held three conferences altogether in London and taken part in gay Muslim conferences all over the US.

As the UK group evolved and came of age, our name changed to Imaan meaning 'Faith'.