Sonia Kruger has courted controversy on morning television by calling on Australia to ban Muslim immigrants, prompting a stand-off with fellow presenter David Campbell.

The co-host of Channel Nine's Today Extra program left Campbell and Today host Lisa Wilkinson visibly discomfited after she said she would like to see the immigration of Muslims to Australia "stopped now ... because I would like to feel safe".

She refused to back down in the face of a social media backlash on Monday afternoon, tweeting that "as a mother, I believe it's vital in a democratic society to be able to discuss these issues without automatically being labelled racist".

In the aftermath of her tweet, the hashtag #asamother cropped up on Twitter as users critiqued the logic of her post.