A HIGH-flying lawyer whose Twitter account mooted the possibility of “dedicated Islamic airports and airlines” has been branded a “racist” by an offended Muslim.

Solicitor-advocate Jamie Foster stands by the comments, even though he says he is unsure whether he actually posted them himself.

The tweets on the account in the name of Mr Foster, a partner at law firm Clarke Willmott in Taunton, appeared in the wake of the disappearance of a Malaysian plane earlier this month.

The first message said: “Is it time for dedicated Islamic airports and airlines so the rest of us can carry as much water as we like?”

That was followed up with: “Remember noticing Islamists are responsible for bombing airlines is ‘casual Islamophobia’ but believing all slave owners were white is fine.”

It was rounded off with: “For the record I am a great fan of all hardworking moderates of all colours and creeds. Keep your apologies for extremism and sloth to yourself.”

Osama Elogab, from Creech St Michael, said: “That’s shocking, very offensive, disgraceful.

“He’s suggesting all Muslims are terrorists, which is wrong.

“For him to be able to get away with that is just criminal. It’s racist and outrageous.

“He shouldn’t be allowed to incite hate and should be arrested.

“These are quite scary views. It’s surprising coming from a solicitor – he should know better.”

Mr Foster, who had already resigned from Clarke Willmott to take up another job before the storm broke, said the reaction to the tweets was “out of all proportion”.

He added: “I’m not even sure I’m the person who tweeted those comments – I don’t write all of my tweets.

“Nobody was saying anything about the generality of Muslims in this country.

“What was meant was that extremist Muslims are causing people to be inconvenienced.

“It was saying that if the Malaysian plane was another extremist bombing, what a nightmare.

A Clarke Wilmmitt spokesman said: “Mr Foster’s comments in no way reflect the views of Clarke Willmott LLP.

“We are a diverse business and we do not support such views.

“Clarke Willmott LLP confirms that prior to his tweet Mr Foster had already provided his notice which has been accepted and he will be leaving the firm in due course.”