He is a hafiz, i.e. one who has memorised the Quran; he is the second Victorian imam to earn this title.
[1] Warsame was born in Somalia[2] and lived in Egypt and Canada as a child.
He moved to Melbourne in Australia as a high school student, and has been an imam since 2003.
[4] Since 2014, he has run the underground LGBT support group Marhaba ('welcome' in Arabic)[1][5] and says he was ostracised by the Muslim community because of his sexual orientation, and intended to open Australia's first mosque which was open to the LGBT community.
[3][6] That year, he spoke at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.