The woman in question, 32-year-old Nora Illi, converted to Islam at the age of 18 and is the women's representative of the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (IZRS).
The IZRS has been labeled an ideologically extremist organization by Swiss authorities, and is monitored by the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (NDB). It is believed to have around 3,000 members in Switzerland, and supposedly receives funding from sources in the Middle East.
Illi told the audience that wearing the niqab meant "self-determination" and "freedom," and even appeared to justify the decision of young people who decide to travel to Syria and fight for radical Islamist groups.
When TV presenter Anne Will asked her what advice she had for parents of youths who join the terrorist group Daesh (ISIL/ISIS), she responded with a story about a young woman who ran off to Syria after being refused an apprenticeship due to her headscarf.
In an essay written by Illi in 2014 and available on the IZRS website, the radical writes that fighting with terror groups against the Syria government should be "highly praised as moral courage."
The TV appearance of "Niqab Nora" sparked a furor in the German press and was criticized by the show's other guests, who included CDU MP Wolfgang Bosbach and psychologist Ahmad Mansour. They accused the Anne Will talk show, which is aired by the German public broadcaster ARD, of providing a platform for radical Islam by inviting Nora Illi to appear on the show.
"You can't do this on public television. This is propaganda," Mansour said.
"Perhaps the appearance is a very good thing, in the sense that the population has been shown what problems we have with the Islamic State (Daesh). And also the kind of problems which will occur if we start wearing niqabs and appear like that on the television or walk down the street. You can't communicate properly, that has now been shown clearly. In this respect, we have to almost be grateful to the show," Holm said.
Discussing whether the Anne Will show was right to give Nora Illi a platform, Holm, himself a journalist, criticized what he sees as double standards.
"This is the big question. It is said at every opportunity, that extremists shouldn't be allowed on television. Someone from the NPD (the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany) or from the extreme left would never be invited. This approach represents double standards and I don't understand it."
"My problem would be with the niqab, I wouldn't invite somebody we already know will engage in propaganda for a horrid organization."
The Swiss attorney general's office told German newspaper Bild on Tuesday that it had warned the talk show against inviting Nora Illi on the show. A spokesman said federal prosecutors were "irritated that the IZRS was given a platform on public television"
"All the more so, since the said television program had been notified that a criminal case is pending against a member of the IZRS board, and against another anonymous person," the authorities said.
"There is a large editorial team which works together to produce this big show, they plan a talk show every week. If somebody from AfD appears on a talk show, they find every little quotation which has fallen somewhere over the course of the years. But in this case, they couldn't determine that this woman is an extremist? Then I must doubt the editorial staff," Holm said.
The Mecklenburg-Vorpommern AfD leader told Sputnik that the decision to invite Nora Illi on the show is a matter for Germany's broadcasting supervising bodies.
While it is reasonable to sound out such a person and find out what strange thoughts they have, "whether you give them such a platform on a live show is questionable," Holm said.
