The Friendship Society is named after a secret society of merchants founded in 1814 with the goal of liberating Greece from the Ottoman Empire.  The modern Friendship Society's first attack took place during November of 1999, a time when intense nationalist sentiment had gripped Greece.  Much of the Greek public was extremely angry about an upcoming visit by U.S. President Bill Clinton.  The Greek public has had a long-standing grudge against the United States because they believe that the U.S. supported the military dictatorship that ruled Greece until 1974.  This animosity was revived by the U.S.-led bombing of Kosovo in 1999.  Greeks sympathized strongly with Serbs, who are also Orthodox Christians.  In the days before Clinton's visit, thousands of protesters staged a public trial and convicted the President of genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the Kosovo bombing.<p>November 17, the day before the Friendship Society's attack, was the anniversary of the 1973 student uprising that led to the fall of the military dictatorship.  Patriotic Greeks celebrated the anniversary throughout the night.  It seems likely that the Friendship Society spontaneously decided to attack an American company after participating in the demonstrations and celebrations.  Their attack does not appear to have been carefully planned: they used a Molotov cocktail, a relatively simple device and did little damage aside from breaking a window.  The group was probably small, disorganized, and not closely linked to any of the larger terrorist organizations in Greece.

The Friendship Society claimed responsibility for an attack against a Nike factory in December of 1999, which suggests that the group remained committed to their nationalist, anti-American ideology.  The organization has been inactive since then and has probably ceased to exist.

FPI has been accused of business extortion

As demonstrated by FPI's actions in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster, Front for Defenders of Islam remains opposed to any organizations or entities that do not follow Islamic law.